CPS Chronicles: Loose ends
by largefish8
Summary: The Exo-Gene incident is over but there are still members of Kurata's science team on the loose. Matt, Chloe and their new crewmates, Anderson and Techo pursue three such criminals to the pokemon world but nothing ever goes according to plan.
1. Chapter 1

First off, Pokemon and the related characters are property of Nintendo and not of me or cydra.

Exo-Gene and the related elements are a company I made up.

Finally…despite the name…this has no relationship to the pokemon episode of the same name

This is also an unofficial sequel to Cydra's Pokethropy Story, set a year after the events of that story. It is done with his permission

**CPS Chronicles: Loose Ends**

**Co-authored with Cydra**

**Chapter 1**

**Central Station**

**Nullspace**

Central station was the capitol of the NSC, a vast planet sized station near a shattered planet that housed close to 3 billon souls and had the facilities to hold twice that. It was a haven for those who wished to hide away.

Matt pondered this, looking across the street at the apartment where their target was. It was a month since the Exo-Gene incident, a month of seeking out the remnants of Kurata's contacts and partners. "Hey, Chloe...you think this'll be actually easy this time? The last bunch tried to escape with an unstable portal."

"Don't think they'll try that again," said Chloe, "Switching head's the least you could worry about with those." Matt nodded as the NSC security team that they were with headed towards the front door. "Party time." Matt said, drawing his blaster.

Aidan was looking at his comm when the door to his apartment literally disintegrated. He reached for his teleporter bracelet and actually touched it before the world spun and a blaster was pressed to his head. "Going somewhere?" said a female voice. "Erm...if I said yes, can I go?" he asked. "Not likely," said the voice as a pair of handcuffs clamped around his wrists, "Read him his rights, Matt." Aidan wisely kept his mouth shut. "This guys no fun." muttered the officer holding him.

--

Matt and Chloe had been invited to Aidans interrogation. Their boss in the CPS, Captain Leyton, Commander Neilsson and Captain Olsen were listening. The officer interrogating looked over at Aidan. "For the last time, where are doctor, Zine, Grouder and Kane?" he said angrily at Aidan. "I don't know," said Aidan, "When Kurata got busted, we all scattered. I don't know who went where."

The officer looked ready to punch Aidans lights out...when he smiled. "Ok...your choice." he said with an evil grin and spoke into his comm. "Get the combine confederacy ambassador on the line." "The combine?" said Aidan in a panicked voice, "You're bluffing!" The officer chuckled and threw a file across the table. It was a combine security drone recording a robbery of some kind. Aidan was quite clearly shown at the controls of a hover vehicle, waiting for the robbers. "You know what the combine do to criminals...shame you dunno anything. We coulda pulled strings...at least when you've done our time in Kryos you can still look human."

"Ok, ok, I'll talk!" yelled Aidan. "We're all ears," said the officer, whose mouth was stretching between those two points. "Ok...I dunno exactly where...but they took alot of research from Balwak a week before it was wrecked...headed for dimension G-142 on the border...thats all I know...I swer." gibbered Aidan. The officer grinned and looked at where the others were watching. "You get that?" he said and offered his 'comm' to Aidan, pressing a button that made a mint fall out. Aidan stared at it then went off into a tirade of colourful language that continued as two guards dragged him away.

--

Matt was laughing his head off at the trick. "I can't believe that worked." he gasped. "This is no laughing matter," snapped Neilsson, "Don't you have any idea what this means?" "Uh, sure, we know where Kurata's former scientists are and now we can bag them," said Matt. "But do know what dimension G-142 is?" demanded Neilsson. Matt drew a blank, "Sorry, hard to remember all those number names."

"Its a strategic place. The combine have been after it for years. The fleets we have there are all that holds the confederacy back. If they are forced to apprehend the doctors then its a sitting duck...but I see no choice." said Neilsson. Olsen spoke up at this "Arnold...are you crazy? That place has no Nullspace knowledge...a fleet turning up will cause hysteria and no doubt the local military would attack."

"Then what do you suggest?" said Neilsson, "A smaller group to quietly capture these three?" "Precisely," said Olsen. Olsen nodded. "Exo-Genes shown in the recent past that a small team can run rings round their security measures...and we have two veterans of doing just that right here." he said, gesturing at Matt and Chloe. Matt said "Can we name the price?"

--

**Later...**

**En-route to Dimension G-142**

"Well, he didn't have to be that rude," grumbled Matt as he and Chloe were being flown to their drop-off point. Chloe just smirked happily as the Skyraid flew past the multiple defence satellites that made up the Border between the NSC and their lifelong foes, the Combine. "Hope we never meet these Combine dudes." muttered Matt.

One of the other two occupants muttered. "Bah...you shouldn't say stuff like that." The person, Called Techo continued to make sure their security codes were transmitting. If it stopped the satellites would turned their lethal attention...briefly to the Skyraid. The last occupant, a newly recruited mercenary medic, called Anderson shrugged. "Well...least we ain't goin there, buddies." he said in a Texan accent. Matt glared. "I told you...don't call me that...it was fun for the first 120 times...but now its annoying."

Suddenly the intercom beeped, "Attention passengers, we are approaching co-ordinates. This is a reminder that all units must be in civilian wear only. We must not attract more attention than necessary." The message was automated from a comm satellite mixed into the mess of defence satellites. Ahead, they began to thin out to reveal two destroyer classes flanking a wormhole. "You know...most people have keep out signs." muttered Matt as the ship flew between the huge vessels.

"Hold!" said another voice over the intercom, "This is the NSC Jupiter Security Post. Identify your position and purpose or face forceful consequences." Matt sighed as Chloe said. "This is CPS registered vessel Skyraid on a operation for the NSC...transmitting details of contract." she said, clicking at a computer. After a minute, the voice said, "Contract acknowledged, proceed as you were."

--

The sky of Hoenn had been busy astronomy wise over the last month or so and shooting starts had become almost expected at least once a week so nobody paid attention. If they had, they would have seen this particular star slow to a halt and lower below the treeline outside town.

--

Matt looked at the grenade he'd been handed. "I understand the disguise...but blue?" he said to Techo. "Its supposed to be a great ball...I doctored us all some fake backgrounds...we can only have 6 grenades a piece though otherwise people'll ask questions...be careful of the master ball...its a pulsar grenade." replied Techo happily.

"Cute," said Matt, "But suppose some would want to battle us? Not in the way we're here to do, but with actual, what do they call the creatures here again?" Techo said "Pokemon or something like that...they got wierd names. Anyhow...Olsen got us these." he said, pointing to four sport bags. Inside each was a rifle along with four coloured pieces to attach to it. "Morph gun MK-12's...perfect and easy to hide...and anyhow...it says we're researchers on our files...not battle trainers so nobody should wanna fight us." said Techo.

Chloe said "Only idiots would mess with us..." as the foursome left the ship and headed for the nearby path.

--

"So where exactly are these guys hiding out?" asked Matt. "With a couple of local lowlifes," said Anderson, "Some organization that calls themselves Team Rocket." Anderson added. "Thats not all...Dante's been called in...apparently the good docs insisted on doing the hiring of security...don't dat guy gotta bone to pick with you?" he said.

"Hold it right there!" called a voice suddenly. They group looked to see a duo wearing black uniforms with a red 'R' on the chest. One was a green-haired man and the other was a blonde woman. "This is Team Rocket property," said the man with a rough voice, "Get lost now!" Chloe raised an eyebrow. "Who the hell are you two mafia rejects?" she said as the others smirked.

The duo grinned and the woman said, "To infect the world with devastation!" "To blight all people in every nation!" said the man. The two carried on while the group watched in astonishment. "What the heck is this?" said Matt. Then he heard the woman say 'Cassidy' and the man say 'Butch'. "Okay, that's good enough for me," said Matt, "Let's get rid of these bozos."

Matt pulled his Morphgun out his pack and aimed. "I'm tired, annoyed and you are not helping...SMEG OFF!" he yelled and with that fired at the two shocked Team rocket members, sending them off into the distance with the resulting explosion. Anderson whistled. "Now thats impressive...they musta gone a couple of kilometers." He said happily.

After that, a couple more Rocket grunts tried to take them down, to the same spectacular effect. "I swear, this should be a sport," said Chloe as the last grunt twinkled out of sight over the horizon. "This might actually be a good day," said Matt. Suddenly the sky clouded up and it started raining.

Chloe glared. "NEVER say that." she said angrily before sighing. "We might as well find somewhere to crash for the night in town...its too far back to the ship for now." The four of them were running over to town when they nearly ran into another traveller. By the looks of it, she was a travelling trainer, a 13-year old with brown hair in pigtails.

Matt stopped in time. "Sorry...we're kinda in a hurry...is there any hotels around?" he said. "I was hoping on finding the same thing myself," said the girl, "I don't care how long I've been outdoors, spending rainy nights in a tent is not fun." "Since you know the road to town, may we join you?" asked Chloe. "Sure," said the girl, "Should be just down this road. My name's May by the way."

"Names Se...Matthew...People call me Matt. Thats my sister, Chloe, Richard and..well we don't know but he calls himself Techo." said Matt. Techo shrugged. "I like the anomity." he said

Matt was about to say 'bounty hunters' when Chloe, seeing this 'accidently' kicked him. "Sorry, I slipped...we're researchers. Say...did you see some of our colleages...they're doctors called Zine Grouder and Kane." she said as Matt rolled on the floor in pain. "No, I haven't seen any researchers nearby," said May, "I think Professor Birch is in another part of Hoenn. Not sure about here."

May asked. "Did you hear some explosions earlier? I thought it was a voltorb hanging around but I didn't see anything." she asked. The mercs all froze for a second and gained poker faces that most politicians would have been proud of. "Erm...no." said Chloe.

Then May noticed a nearby roadsign. "Oh good, we are heading to Petalburg City. That's my hometown. It'll be so nice to sleep in my own bed again. Before I head off to the next contest of course." The town came into view in the rain. "Thats petalburg? Beats central...OW!" said Matt, looking at it.

"Yeah, it is great," said May, "Let's head over to the gym, I bet my family's waiting for me. I think we have enough spare rooms for you guys." The mercs all perked up at this. A chance to get out the rain was top on their current list of things to do. Techo was first to catch on to the word out of place. "Gym?" he said.

"The Petalburg Gym. My dad, Norman, is the leader." "Oh, right," said Chloe, feigning knowledge, "Just that we're so busy with research we don't think about gyms much." Matt muttered "Good comeback." in splitter which made him sound like he had a cough. The group headed past the buildings and to a larger one that somewhat resembled a dojo.

The inside of the gym was thankfully warm. "Dry...at last." said Matt happily. "VIGOROTH!" Matt turned in the direction the cry came from. "What the-" Suddenly he was bowled over by a large white creature that looked like a bipedal sloth with a somewhat crazed look on his face, like someone who drank way too much coffee. The other mercs laughed as Matt got up. "What hit me?" he gibbered and staggered around till he fell over again.

Matt attempted to get up again and spotted another pokemon who was watching with an air of amusement. "DOGGY!" he said happily and passed clean out on the floor. "Looks you've been out longer than I thought," said Norman, "Ok, you can stay the night. He looks like he could use some sleep."

Matt had already gotten to this judging from the snoring noises. Chloe looked around for the pokemon Matt had seen and saw nothing. She shrugged. "Thank you...we'll be out your hair by tomorrow." she said politely.

--

The next morning, Matt woke up to see a pokemon staring at him. "Munchlax." it said and proceeded to chew on the chocolate bar it had nicked from Matt's pocket. Chloe strolled by as Matt attempted to retrieve it with little success. "COME HERE YOU LITTLE CHOCOLATE NAPPER!...Oh...morning." Matt said, stopping briefly to wave before continuing in pursuit of Munchlax.

"Don't tell me that little butterball's gotten the best of you," said Chloe, a smile on her face. "Don't be silly," said Matt, "As if anyone shorter than my knee will ever get the best of me. Come back here!" He continued chasing Munchlax while Chloe laughed out loud.

Munchlax finally avoided Matt by turning and running between Matt's legs. Matt didn;t have time to turn before his face had an intimate meeting with the wall. "Ouch." he said faintly before sliding down the wall. Chloe laughed even harder and tossed Munchlax one of her bars.

As Matt was trying to regain his dignity and his balance, a young boy with dark hair and glasses walked in. "You must be those guys who came in with May," he said. He looked at Matt and said, "Got tricked by Munchlax, didn't ya? Not very professional."

"Eat my shorts." said Matt in a slurred voice, adding. "and that goes for the other two." he said before staggering off. Chloe sighed. "Forgive him. He had a hard night." "So, you're researchers right?" said Max. His voice sounded a bit dubious. "Yes...we only started a week ago and we're trying to find our bosses...they had to go ahead." she said in a now neutral tone. Something about this kid was off but she had no idea what.

"So, what field of research are you working on?" asked Max. "Security mostly." said Chloe. "We signed a non-disclosure agreement so no asking." she added before having an idea. The docs trail had ended in this area after all. "Have you seen these people around town?" she asked, pulling out photos of the doctors and of Dante.

"Him I definitely remember," said Max, pointing at Dante, "He was in a restaurant we were eating at. He had really lousy manners, shouting over everything." "He would...Jonathan has anger issues...his brother was in a bad accident recently..." said Chloe distantly, remembering Matts gloomy face when he'd come out of Lab one. She was sure it would come back to haunt him one day."

"Do you know where he is now?" she said. "There's some sort of facility outside of town," said Max, "I don't know who runs it." Chloe smiled warmly. "Thanks kid." she said before calling for the others.

--

Meanwhile, Max slipped away to find May. He found her cleaning her Skitty's fur. "What is it?" she asked. "There's something about those guys you met," said Max, "They don't look like any kind of researchers. I don't think they've been near any Pokemon before. They don't have any kind of scent on them. Except for a gunpowder scent."

"You think they're fakes?" asked May. "Probably," said Max, "There's something weird about them that isn't right. I say we should see what they're up to." "If they are fakes," said May, "It's probably a good idea that we keep an eye on them. I'll go get my backpack."

--

It was dark by the time the merc team decided to approach the Lab, its outer wall covered with spotlights. "Get the feeling these guys don't want visitors?" said Techo. Matt nodded. "Anderson...go get the Skyraid...closer the ship is, the faster we can leg it." he said. Anderson nodded before heading off.

"So what do we do?" asked Chloe. "Simple, we go in, find those snakes, tie them up, drag them out, and call it a day," said Matt. "Sounds so simple from your point of view," said Techo. "You'll learn," said Chloe.

The three sneaked up to one of the service doors in the wall, Techo quickly attaching a dragonfly shaped device to the code lock. "Ok...should be a minute." he said. "What about the guards that will definitely be on the other side?" said Matt. Techo smirked and pulled out one of the 'pokeballs' "Stunner...good for a whole hour." h said, priming it and throwing it over the wall. "There was a faint 'what the smeg is...' that was cut off by a loud crackling noise that ended with four heavy thuds. The door beeped and Chloe carefully opened it to reveal a courtyard with four armoured mercs lying face down and snoring. "Nice one, Techo." she said. Matt was looking at one of the mercs though. "Definitely one of Dante's. Great...of all the places to run into a homicidal maniac." he said. The three mercs had not noticed the two figures watching from the tree line, otherwise they'd have spoken splitter.

--

"Ok, that's definitely not research," said May as they watched Matt and his team talking, "Could you make anything out of what they were saying?" "Sounds to me like they're a bunch of mercenaries," said Max, "and they've definitely got weird weapons." As the two watched, Matt burned the lock off an exterior door...literally and the three went inside.

"We should tell them they're trying to steal something," said May. "Actually, it sounds like they're going to kidnap someone. But you're right, we better tell somebody."

--

Sgt Arlan was in a foul mood. What he'd done to upset the doctors to land himself perimeter patrol was beyond him but the three doctors were funny in the head, he was sure of that. He turned as he heard a voice calling him, turning to see two kids. "Hey...you aren't supposed to be..." he said before looking where they were pointing. The exterior fence door was open and either squad two were really tired or they'd been stunned. "Smegging hell...control?"

Max and May were starting to feel good with themselves until they heard the 'guard' say, "Shoot to kill, repeat, shoot to kill." "What about the civilians?" said Arlan. "Bring them to control...no witnesses." came the answer. Arlan turned to the kids. "Hey...get over here." he said, drawing an identical weapon to what matt and his mercs had been holding.

Fortunately, a loud explosion behind Arlan occurred, getting enough of his attention to make him turn around and swear. When he turned back towards where the siblings were, they were gone.

--

While Arlan was receiving his orders, Matt and the gang had managed to find their way into some kind of kennels. All kinds of pokemon stared with a mix of fear and anger, depending on their types. A few had bandages where blood samples had presumably been taken. "What the hell." muttered Techo, shining a torch into a cage with a treeko in it.

"Be careful," said Matt, "If they're doing what Kurata was doing, you don't want to be bitten by these guys." The treeko just cringed away from the light, as if expecting to be hit. "Aw...c'mon little dude...I ain't gonna hurt ya." said Techo as kindly as he could. Chloe meanwhile pulled a note off a cage. "They're all stolen domestics...but what kinda sick creep operates like this? He's worse than Kurata, whoever he is." she said.

"Maybe we can use these guys?" said Techo, "just turn them loose. That'll keep those creeps busy." Matt smirked, looking at a floating red and white ball that was glaring at him in a very unnerving way. "I like it." he said. Techo nodded and wandered over to a list of levers and began pulling them. The pokemon didn't need telling and made a beeline for any exit they could find. The voltorb floated over to the door and began glowing just as Dante opened the door with a full team beside him. "I got you now, you little…what the he?" he began and was cut off as the Voltorb used Explosion on him, sending him and his team back along the corridor and demolishing a exterior wall.

"Quick, before they recover their bearings, and their belongings," said Matt. The four of them quickly headed away from the chaos the released Pokemon were creating.

--

In a lab on the third floor, Doctor Zine was looking at a holo-readout of their latest formula. An angry looking charmeleon was strapped to a table and was still making every attempt to maul the other two doctors. "Dammit...I told you we should have just cloned one. This magi-virus is too unpredictable for use." said one of the other doctors, kane. The last one Grouder nodded. "I wish dante would hurry up and turn off that blasted alarm...its playing hell with my migraines."

Doctor Zine was about to reply when there was, of all things, a knock at the door. "Make yourself useful." he said rudely to the guard that Dante had left with them. The guard opened the door to see Matt and company. "Special delivery," said Matt as he deposited a stunner in the unwitting guard's hands.

The guard squeaked and then jumped up so high from the resulting charge that he banged his head on the roof, before crumpling at Matt's feet, who stepped on him as he and his friends strolled in. "Hi, I'm Captain Lynch and me and my team will be your kidnappers this evening...hands up please." he said, aiming at the doctors who just stared, still speechless from their arrival.

"Don't just stand there," hissed Grouder, "Do something." Zine looked indecisive, then he pressed a button that released the restraints on the Charmeleon. "No! Not that!" yelled Kane. The Charmeleon jumped up and looked around. It was confused as to why it had been let loose. Then its instincts kicked in and his narrowed its eyes at the biggest threats in the room...the humans with their weapons. "Chaaaar." it said angrily and lunged at Matt before he could even raise his blaster, clawing him across the shoulder. Chloe and Techo yelled in surprise and opened fire at point blank range.

"KNOCK IT OFF! YOU'RE HITTING ME!" yelled Matt. Then the Charmeleon let out a Flamethrower attack, which just made Matt scream louder. The Charmeleon hissed angrily then jumped out a window. Chloe ran to the window and fired a few more bursts at the retreating glow emanating from the pokemons tail to no effect while Techo looked at the wound. "Bloody lucky, mate. Just a papercut." Chloe however was furious, turning and shooting Zine in the leg. "You little newt..." she said, using one of the worst things that a splitter can be called as the pain forced Zine back into his splitter form, that of an anthro dragonoid.

"You okay, mate?" asked Techo. Matt, who was doing a very good impression of a 'well-done' steak, said, "Oh, nothing a 10 pound bag of ice won't fix." Chloe was advancing on the scientists. "Now then...you two...help your mate before I kneecap the rest of you and cram you in one of those ball things." she said, not even bothering to conceal the murderous tone in her voice.

The defenseless scientists rushed to meet her demands. "I don't know what twisted experiments you were doing with these Pokemon," said Silvia, "But it all ends tonight." Zine, despite his pain, laughed. "Oh...you'll find out in an hour...are we feeling ok, captain? You seem to be getting a fever." he said to Matt, in a taunting tone. Matt was indeed starting to sweat. "Musta had a poisonous bite...Anderson...where's the ship?" he said into his comm. "2 minutes away, boss." came the reply.

The small group walked out into the corridor just as 3 members of Dantes group ran round the corner. Matt and Chloe fired first, nailing one of them but were forced to dive for cover as the survivors returned fire, unconcerned when they hit Kane instead. "Ok, they're not taking any prisoners," said Techo, "We gotta get out of range now!"

Matt clicked in the purple mod to his rifle and aimed it round the corner. An orb of electricity shot down the corridor, causing an explosion that threw the remaining members of dante's responce team to the floor, out cold.

The group ran down the corridor, only for a grenade to roll out a side corridor and collapse the roof, blocking off Matt from the others. Matt turned, wiping smoke away to see Dante and some of his best men, smirking. "Long time, Matt...Having a nice trip?" he said

"Not really," said Matt, "but I can still beat you, and those two clones of yours you have on either side." "Looks like someone's got too many blows to the head," said Dante as he signalled to his men, "and yet not enough."

The two men grinned and pulled out tazer batons before charging Matt. One tried a thrust to shock Matt and was surprised when Matt effortlessly sidestepped it and spun him into a wall. The other tried to hit Matt over the head and ended up being flipped over the merc instead. They both got up in time for Matt to gut punch one down the corridor at Dante and the other out of a window.

"That...urgh...all you got? They're jokes." he said, shaking his head. He was feeling dizzy. Dante's comm beeped. "We got his team out in the courtyard...order?" Dante smirked and reached behind him to pull out his own peacemaker mode morphgun. "I'll be right there." he said, revealing it and shooting Matt before he could respond. Matt flew back and out the window with enough force to clear the perimeter wall before hitting a tree with a cracking noise. His last memory before he passed out was of Dante leering out of the window, giving a mock salute.

--

Dante didn't waste any time. He quickly headed for the courtyard. Matt's comrades were keeping themselves busy by punting any grunts that were stupid enough to try to grab them. "Going somewhere?" called Dante, "Without your fearless leader?" Chloe turned and almost blasted Dante's head clean off before being forced to kick a guard somewhere sensitive. She stopped dead however when she realized what Dante met. "You didn't." she said softly.

"He's got a tough hide, to be sure," said Dante, "But how strong are his bones?" Chloe tried to lunge at Dante with her bare hands only to be grabbed by two guards. Techo, who had also been disarmed looked as dejected as Chloe was. "The NSC'll have your butt on a platter...you just committed murder." he said to Dante. Dante shrugged. "Only if there's witnesses." he said. His men were about to shoot Chloe and Techo when a hail of laser rounds tore into them. "OH WHAT NOW?" yelled Dante, diving for cover as the Skyraid hovered into view, firing its nose lasers. "Sorry, I'm late, partners...Shall we be leaving?" he said over the intercom, not noticing Matt's absence.

"Just get that thing landed while we still have two…" she began, before being cut off by a squisjing noise and correcting "…one Splitter scientist to haul back," said Chloe's voice to Anderson. "You've got it, little lady," he said. Zine wasn't going anywhere though as Dante began heading back with some of his men toting anti-air blast cannons. "We can get that newt later. Lets go before they deadeye us." said Anderson, extending the ramp and hovering close enough for the mercs to jump aboard.

Once aboard, he set it to autopilot and grabbed a medkit before heading down. "Wheres the boss?" he said, confused. "We don't know," said Techo, "but we're hoping that Dante's just bluffing." Chloe just burst into tears.

--

Meanwhile, outside the lab, May and Max peered out from their hiding place. From the sounds of things, all the excitement was now at the opposite end of the lab. "I think we better head back," said May. "Yeah," said Max. Then he stopped, "Hey, do you smell that?" "What?" asked May. "I smell a Pokemon, a Pokemon that's been weakened a lot."

The two headed toward where a small weak glow could be seen at the bottom of a tree that had a huge crack in the bark about halfway up it. The glow was coming from a Charmeleon that looked like a semi truck had hit it at full speed. Its tail flame was barely flickering.

"We better get him to the Pokemon Center quickly," said May. "Yeah, wonder what attacked that could beat him like that?" said Max. The Charmeleons eyes flickered open for a second.

--

Matt had never been in so much pain. He was sure he had a few broken bones. He focussed on whoever was holding him and tried to hold his hand up. He looked at it and then passed out, deciding it was an hallucination. He hadn't had claws a minute ago...

**Whats happened to Matt? Find out next time.**

**Please R&R and be nice…this is my first pokemon fic.**


	2. Chapter 2

First off, Pokemon and the related characters are property of Nintendo and not of me or cydra.

Exo-Gene and the related elements are a company I made up.

Finally…despite the name…this has no relationship to the pokemon episode of the same name

This is also an unofficial sequel to Cydra's Pokethropy Story, set a year after the events of that story. It is done with his permission

Key:  
Human speech  
_translated pokemon speech_

**CPS Chronicles: Loose Ends**

**Chapter 2**

May and Max went to the Pokémon Center in the morning. They had gone there with that Charmeleon they had found the previous night. Since it was so beat up, they were worried if it had recovered or not. Nurse Joy took them to where the charmeleon was. "I'm still confused as to how he got some of his injuries. You say you found him in the woods near that new laboratory?" she said, looking at the bandaged and still unconscious Pokémon.

"Yeah, it looked like some big Pokemon had beat him up," said Max. "Well, he'd show some signs of bruising," said Nurse Joy, "But it looks more like he's been hit with a beam-based attack. And I'm not aware of any Pokemon around here that knows of any beam attack. As a matter of fact, I don't believe Charmeleon live anywhere near here."

The pokemon on the bed stirred for a minute before laying still again. The three leaned forward and jumped as the Pokemons eyes shot open.

--

Matt opened his eyes when he began to hear voices on the edge of hearing. What had happened? Oh yeah. Dante had been using his own Morph gun and had used the damn peacemaker setting. He looked around at the blurry figures at the end of his bed. Had a splitter team picked him up? The silluette's of the people were gigantic.

Matt blinked his eyes and the figures cleared up to be those two kids from yesterday, Max and May standing there with a nurse. _"Hey, what are you guys doing here? And how'd you get so big?"_ Something didn't seem right. The words didn't sound quite the same coming out of his mouth. And apparently, they didn't understand him.

"Guys...this isn't funny. Dante could be here any minute." he said, reaching for one of the heart monitor strips and freezing when he spotted his hand. He raised the other up to what he realised was snout level now and looked to see the other hand was identical. Covered in red scales and sporting three nasty looking claws. _"Ok...intel screwed up again and there was a hostile reality field. Memo...dropkick, Lieutenant Tallow out a window upon returning."_ he muttered before proceeded to step two of the standard reaction: Freaking out.

Matt got up onto his feet and was hit by a big dizzy spell. That and his new center of gravity caused him to lose his balance and fall over. That's when he noticed that he now had a lizardlike tail and the tip of it was on fire.

Matt stared at this. At least it managed to shock him out of his freak out. _ "Ok...this is headed into Twilight Zone territory ." _he said, pinching the tail just to make sure it was real. Judging from the pain, it was. He sighed and took a deep breath and spelled something that somehow put his teeth on edge a bit. He turned to find that it came from Max. _"Weird...stupid nose."_ he muttered before getting an idea. He jumped down and began scratching letters in the floor, only to be picked up by the nurse. _"HEY...HANDS OFF LADY!"_ he yelled.

The exact wording didn't through the language barrier, but the implement did. "Oh dear," said Nurse Joy. "We better sedate him until he fully recovers." Matt stared at this. "You bring a needle anywhere near me and I'll...I'll...smeg it." he muttered, giving up and sulking.

--

While Matt was getting a brief introduction to a new species, Dr Zine was fervently wishing he'd been left behind. "Ok, ya little snake. Y'all tell us where the captain is. We all know Dante missed him cause the computers picking up his ID chip." said Anderson threateningly.

"How should I know?" said Dr. Zine, "I'm not psychic." "You know because your little lab project attacked him," said Chloe, "and charring a layer of scales off of you is hardly the worst thing I can come up with right now if you don't tell us more."

Dr Zine shrugged. "Then I'd hurry up and get out there to find your brother. I doubt you have much time...URK!" he said as Chloe kicked his chair over and put a foot on his throat. "If he's even less then healthy when we get him, you won't be...comprende?" she said coldly.

"Easy, Chloe," said Techo, "You can't much information out of a corpse." Then he turned his attention to the computer, "Ok, I've got a lock on his signal. That's odd." "What?" said Anderson. "It says that he's in town." Chloe got her foot off Zine and wandered over. "It's some kinda medical facility." continued Techo. Chloe grinned. "Simple enough. We go in and discharge him."

Zine laughed and said, "I doubt it will be as simple as you think." Chloe glared at him and said to the others, "Remind me to tear a bit of his hide off when we get back." Anderson nodded. "I could do with some new boots." he said with a smirk.

"Ok, I've the address," said Techo, "It's the Petalburg...Pokemon Center?" He gave a wary glance towards Zine who just smiled in a mocking way. "Perhaps this really isn't that simple," said Techo.

--

Meanwhile...

Matt had decided that if he had to be sedated he'd make the orderlies work for their paychecks. He had managed to get onto one of the ceiling lamps in his room and was sitting there with the closest thing a charmeleon could get to a smug grin. _"I'm not coming down."_ he said happily.

May tried to get him down using a broom, but that only ended with it catching on fire. "Maybe if we squirt him, he'll drop down," said Max. Matt heard this and glared. _"Don't even think about it, kid."_ he said then realised he was still speaking pokemon to them and decided to save his breath, though he did blow a raspberry.

May released Squirtle and said, "Squirtle, use Water Gun, but don't do it so hard." Matt dodged the water blast barely, almost losing his footing. "Hey...Donatello...watch it with the squirting. I don't even wanna be here...if I get injured my sister'll turn you into soup." he said, scrambling back up.

The next water blast missed Matt, but it hit the lightbulb. This resulted in Matt getting a rather big zap and falling to the ground like a moth that flew into a bug zapper. "I haven't hurt this bad since Veemon head butted me." he groaned, weakly before getting up. Some little mental voice was telling him to put turtle boy in his place. His post-zapping body seconded the idea. "You want a fight then?" he said.

Squirtle noticed the unfriendly look in the Charmeleon's eyes and quickly ran behind May's leg. Matt sprung up and chase after him, trying to scratch him with his claws. "Hey, cut that out!" yelled May. Squirtle turned slightly and hit Matt with an Ice Beam. However, Matt had recently spent the last few months being shot at and had honed good dodging reflexes, sidestepping the beam. He opened his mouth without thinking and lunged with a fire fang attack.

Squirtle used Withdraw and ducked into his shell. The Fire Fang attacked bounced off, but Squirtle's shell gave Matt the mental image of a hockey puck. He aimed a push and sent the withdrawn Squirtle into the wall. Unfortunately...exactly like a puck, the shell bounced off, shot back at Matt and knocked him head over tail.

"This has gotten to rough," said Nurse Joy. She released her Chansey and told it, "Chansey, use Sing on that Charmeleon." Matt turned at that, snapping out of it. "Wait. I'm not a poke...mon...night night." he said as Chansey used her attack. He fell forward with a clunk.

"My goodness," said Nurse Joy as she picked up the dozing Matt, "This Charmeleon certainly is rambuctious." Max gave the Charmeleon an odd look and said, "Yeah, we'll come back later. I think there's a little more to this Charmeleon than meets the eye."

--

Matt sat in one of the rooms used for wild pokemon that had been brought in. The other pokemon couldn't have given him a wider birth had he been a carrier of Quantum Virus. "For heaven's sake. I'm not a nutcase." he said for a fifth time to the few pokemon that shared with him.

_"You're not a natural Pokemon neither,"_ said a Shroomish nervously_. "Well done. You're the first...thing to admit that. I've been saying that since I woke up."_ he said in an irritated voice. Suddenly the world went dark as something big loomed behind him. He turned to see the biggest crocodile he'd ever seen...a Feraligator_. "Uh...hey there..."_ he whimpered.

_"You don't belong here,"_ growled the Feraligator. "Yeah, I know," said Matt, backing away, _"I'd leave as soon as I can but I have to wait for..." "You'll leave now!" _Matt narrowly avoided becoming flattened by the Feraligator's Iron Tail attack.

Matt fled across the room at a good turn of speed until he found he'd run out of space to flee. _"Oh...bugger."_ he said as the Feraligator advanced on him. _"Now, now,"_ Said Matt as he backed up into a corner, _"I'm sure there's a way to deal with this nonviolently."_ Suddenly the window broke open and a Mightyena leaped in.

Matt settled for curling into a ball until the noises stopped. When he looked back, the Mightyena appeared to have used the Feraligator as a punching bag as it was lying on the floor with its eyes spinning. "Dude..." he muttered and squeaked when the Mightyena turned to look at him. _ "DON'T EAT ME...I DON'T TASTE GOOD!"_ he screamed.

_"I'm not here to hurt you,"_ said the Mightyena. It's voice sounded familiar, but Matt couldn't place it at the moment. "You're...you're not?" he said, calming down a bit. "Please believe me. This days been wierd since I woke up in this...hospical. I'm not supposed to be like this." he said

"I believe you," said the Mightyena, "You're a Pokethrope, aren't you?" "A what?" Matt said. "Are you just here to take the smeg?" he added in a suspicious tone. He sighed and remembered what had happened back at the lab. "One of...well...me, bit me...I got shot...woke up like this." he said

_"In that case, how comes you're in Pokemon form during the day?"_ asked the Mightyena, "_and how comes you're not trying to fight the other Pokemon?" "Cause I don't want to..."_ said Matt. _"Hey...I saw you...at the gym."_ he said, putting destination to the memory of the pokemon before him. _"I saw you just after that big sloth thing knocked me over." _he said

Mightyena chuckled and said, _"Yeah, Vigoroth does get wound up on rainy days. Well, I better get going before Nurse Joy sees what the commotion's about." "What about me? I don't want to be someone's...pet...wait...you believe me?" _he said.

_"Of course,"_ said the Mightyena as he was climbing back up to the window, _"I went through the same thing myself."_ Matt was about to ask who the Mightyena was when he wasn't beating the hell out of crocodiles when the door opened and Nurse Joy looked in. Matt followed her gaze to the dazed Feraligator and back to her. _"Erm...I didn't do it."_ he said.

Nurse Joy looked disapprovingly at the Feraligator, "That Feraligator's trainer needs to teach him some self-control. A Pokemon should know better than to attack smaller Pokemon in a hospital ward." Matt turned and smirked at Feraligetor who returned it with a death glare. _"Sleep tight...Don't let the german shepard sized wolves bite."_ he said and wandered over to a corner to go to sleep.

--

The next morning, Max and May were walking to the Pokemon Center. "Are you certain about this?" said May. "Definite," said Max, "He said he was a Pokethrope and he saw me before when he got tackled by Vigoroth. There's only one person who's been there."

"Three people...it could have been any one of them." said May, remembering the other two. "How will we know for sure?" she began as they turned the corner to come face to face with Chloe. "Oh...erm...ok." said Chloe, unsure what to say. She was dressed up like a trainer this time around but the sports bag was still there.

"Hello, Chloe," said May slowly, "Where have you been yesterday?" "You know...escaping certain lasery death...capturing wanted fugitives...and looking for my AWOL brother." she said without a hint of sarcasm.

"Hmm, such uncharacteristic honesty," said Max, his voice heavy with sarcasm. Chloe sighed and said, "Listen, I'm sorry we lied to you, but this thing's a lot more complicated than you could ever hope to imagine on your own. I'm just here to get my brother." Chloe spotted Max's gaze and pulled a blaster out, losing it for a second. "Where is he?" she snarled before getting a hold of herself and putting the gun down. "I'm...sorry. Please...where is he? He's the only family I have."

"Ok, ok, we were just on our way to see him," said May. "Yeah, please put the futuristic gun away," said Max. Chloe put it back in her holster. "It was just a stun gun...ok...lead the way." she said as if she hadn't just waved a raygun around a minute ago.

Nurse Joy was waiting for Max and May. "Oh good, the Charmeleon has recovered nicely. He's in the other room." Chloe looked at the kids suspiciously but started her plan. "You found him? I was so worried." she said, eyes welling up while ignoring May's Max's and even Techo's stunned looks.

"Oh, is it your Charmeleon?" asked Nurse Joy. "Yes," said Chloe, "We got separated three days ago and I was worried what happened to him." "Ok then," said Nurse Joy, "I'll go get him at once." Chloe watched the nurse walk off then turned on the two kids. "30 seconds to explain...make it good." she said, dropping the act at warp speed.

"We found this Charmeleon in the woods after you guys broke in," said May. "I think he's Matt and he's been turned into a Pokethrope." "A Pokewhat?" said Techo. "It happened about a month ago when I was going through the Contests in Johto," said May, "I was heading towards the Contest in Olivine City when I stopped at Ecruteak City. My dad was having a meeting with the Gym Leader there so Max came along with him." "We were staying at the Dancing Sisters' place and I decided to go for a walk," said Max, "But then a Mightyena attacked me and bit my leg. May came and scared it off."

"We learned later that Mightyena was cursed and had given Max Pokethropy," said May, "It's this curse that spreads when an infected Pokemon bites a human. When it does, that human turns into a Pokemon at night and starts fighting other Pokemon. Eventually, the human becomes a Pokemon permanently."

"Fortunately, we met this witch who made a special Moon Ball to help me control this curse," said Max, "It's not gone permanently, but at least I can change how I look whenever I want."

Chloe glared throughout the explanation. "You expect me to believe that...that rubbish?" she said icily but quickly turned when she heard a happy sounding 'CHAAAR.' and was staggered as a creature almost identical to the creature from the labs ran over from the returned Nurse Joy and hugged her leg. She picked him up, unsure then spotted something on the pokemons shoulder. "Oh...oh, Matt..." she said in shock before smoothly dropping back into character...not that she needed much acting. "I was worried sick," she said.

Techo walked over to Nurse Joy. "Thanks for finding him...how much do we owe you for the treatment?" he said, reaching for the pocket where he kept a few credits handy. "Oh, no money is necessary," said Nurse Joy, "I'm always happy to help a Pokemon in need." "Well, here's a few credits to cover anything he might have damaged," said Techo, putting the money in Joy's hand. "How did you know he-" "He's often breaks anything that's around him," said Chloe, getting an annoyed look from Charmeleon.

The mercs walked out, followed by May and Max. "You sure thats your brother?" asked Max. Chloe nodded and pointed to a faint line on the charmeleons shoulder. "He got...into trouble against one of Dante's toys on our last op. Piece of metal cut him." she said. Matt nodded and started gabbering away in pokemon. Chloe seemed to get an idea. "Yes...yes you can have first shot at Zine when we get back...just try not to kiill him." she answered, causing Matt to grin evilly.

"I don't think you should let him do anything violent," said May. "Pokethropes tend to get carried away in battle," said Max, "Look what happened with Squirtle." Chloe looked at Matt. "What did happen? Wait, why am I asking him? Hey, kid." she said to Max. "If you can go all pokemon'y...you ask him."

Max looked around to make sure no one's watching and then shrank down into a Mightyena. After a short conversation, Max resumed human form and said, "He said he felt a little voice inside encouraging him to fight." Chloe and Techo however seemed to have lost all communication with...anything. They were staring at Max in shock with their mouthes open so wide they were in danger of catching birds, let alone flies.

"Um, its rude to stare," said Max. Matt asked a question in pokemon and Max said, "Yeah, I was that Mightyena you saw. It turns out that if you start out at the same level as your age and you keep fighting to level up and evolve."

Chloe was first out of her shock at that. "I doubt it...the guy who had Matt's biter...he's a genius in genetics...he's bound to have improved what he saw as mistakes." Techo snapped out of it next. "Guess he wanted to restart Kurata's Bio-Weapon project." he muttered.

"Maybe we should keep him at the gym just in case," said May, "My dad has strong enough Pokemon to subdue him if he gets out of control." Chloe looked at Matt. "Well...I'm not leaving him alone...so I go too...Techo...you and anderson keep an eye on Zine and grill him for info on how to fix this mess." she said. Techo nodded. "Gotcha, Boss lady...OW!" he said as Chloe kicked him, yelling "DON'T CALL ME THAT!" "I can see we have a lot in common," said Max to Matt. Matt nodded, trying to hide behind May from Chloe.

**So...poor matts caught the same condition that max caught back in 'Pokethropy'. At least he and his sister and crew have help...tune in next time.**


	3. Chapter 3

First off, Pokemon and the related characters are property of Nintendo and not of me or cydra.

Exo-Gene and the related elements are a company I made up.

Finally…despite the name…this has no relationship to the pokemon episode of the same name

This is also an unofficial sequel to Cydra's Pokethropy Story, set a year after the events of that story. It is done with his permission

Key:  
Human speech  
_translated pokemon speech_

**CPS Chronicles: Loose Ends**

**Chapter 3**

Matt was just waking up. He had a nice dream involving campfires. But then he remembered he was still a Charmeleon and that he was now in the Petalburg Gym. He heard footsteps behind him and spun round to see the Munchlax that had stolen his chocolate bar a few days ago, going for the ration pack Chloe had left behind. "_YOU_!" he said, pointing a claw accusingly. Munchlax gave Matt an indifferent look. "_Morning_," he said before eating another candy bar and tossing the wrapper over his shoulder, which just happened to bounce off Matt's head. Matt almost exploded then and there. "_Oh…you did not just do that....hands off my chocs,_" he said in a steady voice. Munchlax waved a paw at him nonchalantly. "_You couldn't catch me yesterday, why should today be any different?_" said Munchlax as he was walking out the door.

Matt was across the room in a blink. "_Yesterday I wasn't a Pokemon with military training memories,_" he said, happy that it would sink in. Munchlax just shrugged and walked by, leaving the shocked Matt staring. "_Now, that's a laid back dude,_" he muttered, before realizing how Munchlax had only been caught by him in human form cause Matt had spotted him. The guy was silent but he'd heard him. "_Nice,_" he muttered. Then a mischievous thought came to Matt, "_Let's see how easy he can evade me when I'm his size and can breathe fire._" Matt took off after the Pokemon and tackled him...

--

Chloe and May were talking when they came across what was apparently Matt reenacting the famous Simpsons scene of Bart being choked. "Ok..." said Chloe slowly. "_Darn it,_" muttered Matt, "_his neck's too thick, stupid claws, can get all the way around._" "I better stop him," said May, "That's my Pokemon he's strangling." Chloe shrugged and punted Matt down the hall with a well aimed kick, landing him in a waste paper bin from which several colourful words in Pokemon language issued. "Well, he is my brother," she said. Then the papers in the bin caught on fire from Matt's tail. "_Help! I'm burning up!_" yelled Matt. May didn't understand a word Matt said, but she got the basic idea. "Matt, you're not burning. You're a Fire Pokemon, remember?" Matt thought about this and realized that it was quite pleasant actually. "_Point taken,_" he said from the bin.

Chloe was looking at May and got back to the topic. "Well anyway, if Matt has to be my Pokemon 'partner' then we need a good reason why we can't get him in one of those ball things." "Well, Ash's Pikachu never liked being in a Pokeball," said May, "In fact, lots of trainers keep their Pokemon outside their Pokeballs." "Well, that's sorted, .but I doubt many Pokemon didn;t have military training either. I suppose he can dumb it down, won't be hard," said Chloe, whispering the last part. Matt could be heard responding angrily.

Chloe decided she'll go out for breakfast at the local diner. Matt decided to come along so he can have her leftovers. Chloe paused at the door. "Is there a leash law in this city?" she asked. Matt shrugged. He hoped someone would try to enforce that type of law, emphasis on the word 'TRY'.

It seemed there was another group of trainers in the diner, discussing battles they'd had. Chloe sat down at the counter and picked up a menu. "Let's see what looks good," she said to herself. "I know what looks good, your butt," called one of the trainers, the other trainers laughing at the joke. Matt turned with a glare that wouldn't just kill, but would be classed as a WMD if it could kill. "Easy, bro," Chloe muttered then smirked. She hadn't had a chance to let loose for a bit and these idiots had it coming. She turned to face them. "Is that the best you Neanderthals have for insults?" she said sweetly.

Matt spotted a familier face peeking from under the other trainer's table. Another Charmeleon. "Insult? Who's insulting?" said the trainer, "Guess some chicks don't take hints so easily." The others laughed along with him. "I guess the classification for sentient lifeforms is really below standard here," she said, noting the trainers' confusion. "What? You can't recognize an insult when you hear it?" she said scornfully. She looked down to see that Matt, to her concealed horror, had walked over to the idiots' table to talk to a Charmeleon that one of the trainers had let loose.

"_Hi, I'm Matt,_" he said happily. "_Hello,_" said the other Charmeleon, "_My trainer calls me Sizzle._" By the sound of the voice, this was a female. "Interesting name," said Matt, "I guess mine's the odd one on account of..." He noticed Sizzle has an unbreaking gaze on him. "What? Is there something on me?" Sizzle just smiled before looking over Matt's shoulder. "_I think your trainer wants you,_" she said. Matt turned back to see Chloe making faint 'get back here' motions with her hand. "_Ah, she'll be fine,_" he said.

However, Sizzle's trainer had already noticed this. "Looks our Charmeleon dig each other," he said, "How about we arrange a double date, babe?" Again, the other trainers laughed at his joke. Chloe was about to get up and twist the little jerk into a pretzel when Matt, also furious, bit the guy on the ankle. After that, Chloe was too busy trying to stop herself laughing to death to fight. Sizzle's trainer managed to kick Matt off. "You need to train your Charmeleon better," he commented. "Ha," said Chloe, crossing her arms over her chest, "My Charmeleon can beat yours any day." Matt was about to set fire to the trainers, who's name was Alan, foot when he heard Chloe. "_No...oh nuts,_" he muttered. Chloe had also caught on when Alan agreed. "You're on," said Alan, "If I win, you go out with me, but you're gonna have to wear something better than that. Something to show what you're covering up right now."

Matt DID set fire to Alan's foot at this comment. "I think my Pokemon objects, he's almost human, don't you think? Like you, you're almost human. No deal, mush." "Ok then," said Alan as he beat out the flames, "How about you trade over that rabid Pokemon of yours? I could use a couple of Charmander eggs. Of course, maybe I should tell Officer Jenny that's he unsafe for public."

Chloe advanced on him angrily. "I know how to make your brain melt by just pinching your left knuckle," she said before bowing her head in defeat, "Ok, but if I win, you let your Charmeleon loose. I doubt she enjoys your 'wonderful' company," she said. "Sure, like she's gonna lose against your Charmeleon," said Alan. Chloe smirked evilly, not seeing Matt and Sizzle looking at each other sadly. "_Well, .that sucks_," said Matt simply.

As Matt and Chloe were leaving the diner, Matt hissed at her, "_Are you insane? I can't beat them! I don't what attack I have or how to use them!_" Chloe looked down in confusion and mistranslated, "Yeah, you'll be fine. I've got noting to worry about." Matt just slapped his head in annoyance.

--

"You challenged who?" asked Max. "Some jerk named Alan," said Chloe, "We can beat him easy." "Uh, did you know that Alan has won badges at six different gyms?" said Max. Chloe was not impressed while Matt, who had a good feeling about what Max meant had begun beating his head on the wall. "So? He has some jewelry, Matt'll eat him up and spit the bones out, not literally of course," she added quickly.

"Chloe, this guy's really tough," said Max, "He beat my dad in just 20 minutes." Chloe looked down at Matt with a worried expression. "Well, least your date's a looker...OW!" she said as an un-amused Matt burnt her heel. "Uh, maybe May's Blaziken could give Matt a few pointers," said Max, "He does know how to fight right?" Matt saluted at this.

"He blew up a battlestation by accident and used a tactical railgun on one of our enemies' mates....as a human," she said smugly. "Ok, how about fighting as a Pokemon?" said Matt. Chloe faltered and said, "Well, it could be that hard, right?" Matt also gulped and looked at Max, "_So...what's this 'Blaziken like...as a person?_"

--

Matt found himself looking up a 6-foot fiery chicken. "_Ok, this has to be the oddest training session yet_," he said to himself. Then he spoke to Blaziken, "_So, how does this work? You just show me the moves and I copy them_?" Blaziken looked at him. "_You seem eager to start, young one,_" he said. Matt suddenly felt small. "_I bet I'm older then you..._" he heard his mouth say to the horror of his brain which swore it had nothing to do with that before running to the back of his mind and hiding.

Blaziken just raised an eyebrow and said, "_Seeing as how you're a Pokethrope, I believe that's true. But you are still inexperienced._" "_I saved a planet recently, does that count?_" Matt's mouth said while inwardly Matt attempted to regain control before he pushed the birdy too far and was incinerated.

"_Well in that case,_" said Blaziken, "_Let's see you do a Steel Claw attack._" Matt stared as he finally got some control back. "_Say what?_" he asked confused. He carried on. "_I dunno how to do that,_" he said truthfully, adding, "_I do know how to blow up a Nocan class research station if that helps._"

"_Interesting,_" said Blaziken, not really understanding what Matt was talking about, "_But you'll find out that experience in one thing does not carry over to another. Let's start with a basic Ember attack._" Matt managed that slightly easier (after the practice on Alan's foot) though it was clearly not to the firebird Pokemon's standards from his tutting.

"_You're doing it as a concentrated spray,_" said Blaziken, "_You need to focus on getting wider range_." "_Oh yea, I've only been one of you guys for a few days. Gimmie a break here,_" he said rudely and realized that Blaziken seemed to be the sort of person who thought Irony was a type of metal.

Blaziken gave Matt a slight Stomp attack. Just enough to wind him a little. "_You'll not learn how to battle unless you embrace your new form. Your Charmeleon instincts should help in learning techniques. So I want you to do less talking and more listening._"

"_Yes herr commandant,_" said Matt breathlessly before getting unsteadily up and closing his eyes. He was about to start concentrating when he opened them again. "_Hey, are these the same instincts that took hold when I nearly filleted that turtle dude back at the Pokemon Center?_" he said.

"_Something similar, I think,_" said Blaziken, "_But you are to only listen to these instincts, not have them influence you._" "_Easy for you to say,_" muttered Matt darkly before closing his eyes again, taking a deep breath and visualizing a nice wide spread of fire ahead of him before exhaling. "_Did it work?_" he said before opening his eyes to see that it had worked...though his aim was off judging from the amount of soot on Blaziken's face. "_Better,_" said Blaziken as he brushed off the soot, "_now let's try it with your eyes open._"

--

**Back at the Skyraid…**

Matt's sister and friends had been making poor Zine's life a misery until he got a cure. It was currently Anderson's turn to guard him. "Ok, Zine, you said you'd have something that could help the boss out, now spill it," he said. "I'm not sure I know what you're talking about," said Zine. "Something to keep him from getting out of control or evolving," said Anderson. Zine smirked. "What's it worth?" he said darkly.

--

Chloe came into Zine's cell to find Anderson bouncing the good doctor's head off a bulkhead. "Anderson! Stop! We can't damage the brain!" yelled Chloe. Anderson stopped and put Zine back in his chair, looking a little disorientated. Chloe held one of Zine's wrists and made a motion. There was a 'crik' noise as the bone joint clicked and Zine howled. "That's not your brain, so tell us...or I really will break it." she said coldly.

"Ok! Ok!" shouted Zine, "We worked on something that would allow a... test subject to be able to resist the urge for evolution." "And where is it?" said Chloe sweetly, reaching for the second wrist. "It's at a warehouse near the lab, the code's 1-4-2, lemme go, you mad human," wailed Zine.

"Odd place for something so important," commented Anderson. "Well, my employers were more interested in just being able to create these hybrids," said Zine. He continued, "I was worried that if a test subject escaped that DARKRIFT would turn up so I had a prototype set made." Chloe looked at her watch, "Damn, gotta go see how Matt's getting on. Techo, go get the stuff." Techo moaned, "It's dark out there..." he started before Chloe's glare silenced him "...right away, ma'am," he said and ran before Chloe threw something at him. Zine said, "Have you considered anger management? OW!"

---

Meanwhile, Matt's training was getting better. He had just managed to get a proper Flamethrower attack. It actually was pretty easy for him. "_Nice to know it's not me who gets burned in the end,_" he said. Chloe arrived back at the gym and dived for cover as Matt tried another one, sending it out the door. "MATTHEW, JAMES LYNCH, YOU ARE SO DEAD!" she yelled before lunging at Matt. The others all sweat dropped as Matt was choked.

Fortunately, Techo had just come in with a box in his hands and a Hoothoot on his head. "Uh, if you kill him now, it means we've been wasting our time with Zine for nothing," he said. Chloe released her grip and said, "You've got a point- What's that on your head?" "Please, I've tried everything to get this little sod off. I tried everything short of disintegrator fire, this thing's mad," he said before breaking down in a sob against the wall.

The Hoothoot just bobbed rapidly up and down happily, hooting with each bob. It was clearly not going to move yet and this weird human it was perched on made such interesting noises.

"So...you've got that prototype doohickey?" asked Chloe. "Right here?" said Techo. The Hoothoot saw it as a prime time to give Techo a little peck on the head. "_Ow, does that hurt?_" asked Matt. Techo correctly guessed what Matt said and said, "Yes, yes it does hurt."

The Hoothoot settled back and, much to Techo's mounting psychosis went to sleep. Techo glared up at it before pulling out a pair of gloves and some goggles. "...I'll kill him," said Chloe looking at them. "This is some...cruel joke," she said as Techo gently put the Hoothoot on a windowsill. He almost made it until Chloe tossed the goggles down, waking it up where it proceeded to fly onto Techo's shoulder instead to start pecking his ear.

As Techo tried vainly to run away from the Hoothoot, Chloe looked at the gloves and goggles. "How are these supposed to help you control your evolutionary urges?" she said. "I dunno," said Matt, "but they look cool." May picked up the goggles and turned them round to find a shard of grey stone flush with the inside of the strap.

"Hey, this is Everstone," she said. "What's Everstone?" asked Chloe. "It's this special type of stone that keeps a Pokemon that's holding it from evolving," said May. Chloe looked at Matt who was currently grinning the dazed grin of the severely beaten up. "Worth a try," she said, she and May putting the gloves and goggles on him. "Kinda suits him," Chloe said as Matt got unsteadily up.

Matt took a look in the mirror, _"Hmm, not too shabby."_ Then Techo ran into the wall besides him and fell to the floor. Hoothoot perched on Techo's head and started hooting happily. Matt looked at the Hoothoot. _"You know that's your fault, right?!"_ he said to it. The Hoothoot didn't seem to care. _"Yea, but that forest was so boring, this guy's much more fun,"_ it said.

Matt went on training with the gloves and goggles. They turned out to be both stylish and functional. He was able to unlock some new attacks without the succumbing to the urge to maim any nearby Pokemon. _"So...any of you guys faced this Alan guy's team?"_ he asked during a rest.

_"From what I've heard,"_ said Ivysaur, _"Alan trained Sizzle to be a nasty fighter, but he's mostly pushing her to be so." "Erm, how nasty?"_ he asked, nervously. He'd seen Chloe's notion of fighting dirty when they'd been fighting Exo-Gene. It had been enough to make his eyes water. _"Like attacking an opponent when they're down or using a cheap shot,"_ said Ivysaur. Matt gulped. _"She seemed so nice in that diner," _he said shakily. _"She wasn't fighting then,"_ said Ivysaur as she got ready to take a nap. _"Gee, thanks." _Matt muttered before hearing Blaziken calling him over for more training.

---

The next morning, Matt had to be poked very hard to be woken up and several more times to stay awake. He had been training all night and he was very tired when he went to bed. _"Tired...want to sleep,"_ he said in a zombie like tone of voice, eyes barely open. "Is water fatal to Charmeleon?" asked Chloe.

"Not as long as it's not on the tail," said Max. "Good," said Chloe and she threw a water balloon in Matt's face._ "THE HORROR_!" yelled Matt waking up in a shot and glaring at Chloe. _"Oh...soooo grown up,"_ he said coldly. The Hoothoot, currently in the rafters sniggered at Matt. "C'mon, we've got a battle to win," said Chloe, "Unless you'd rather be with Sizzle." Matt considered his options before Chloe hissed at him, "I am not dressing up as a Hooters waitress for that scum so if you don't win, I'm going to make sure you're incapable of breeding."

Matt almost went albino at that and fell into step behind Chloe before thinking that she'd probably break every bone in Alan's body if he even thought about trying to even suggest a Hooters waitress uniform for his sister.

--

The battleground was in a clearing near the town. May was there to act as adjudicator for the match and Alan and Sizzle were already there waiting. Matt waved sheepishly at her and glared daggers at Alan. "How about you call it quits now?" called Alan, "It'd save you a lot of humiliation." "Nah, I wouldn't miss the chance to put you in traction," retorted Chloe. "Have it your way," said Alan. "This is to be a one-on-one match between Alan and Chloe," said May, "Both trainers' Charmeleon are to fight until one of them is unable to battle. Begin!"

Sizzle lunged immediately at Matt who rolled to avoid it, automatically obeying the military flash training in his head. Alan wasn't happy by that move from the sound of it as the two Pokemon circled. "Hey, can he do that?" he said angrily to May. "Nothing in the rulebook about how to avoid attacks," said May.

Alan glowered and called out, "Sizzle, use Fury Swipes!" Matt danced back desperately as Sizzle swiped at him rapidly with her claws. _"Can't we talk about this?"_ he said desperately, not really wanting to hit her. Chloe glared. "GET OVER THE FACT SHE'S A GIRL, YOU NUMBSKULL!" she yelled.

"_That has nothing to do with-_" Matt started before he had to avoid another Fury Swipe. "Fine," said Chloe, "if you'd rather be on the defensive, use Smokescreen." Matt gulped. Blaziken had never got to defensive attacks. He tried, really he did but nothing happened so he settled for grabbing Sizzle's arm when she swiped again and flipped her over his head.

"What is this? A martial arts tournament?" called Alan, "Tell that Pokemon of yours to start fighting like a Fire type!" Chloe glared. "Watch your mouth before I twist you into a pretzel shape!" she yelled back.

Matt, meanwhile dodged a Slash attack and countered with one of his own, though it was a lot clumsier. "_You haven't done this for a while, have you?_" said Sizzle. "_My first time, actually,_" said Matt, backing up a bit. "No _wonder you're doing so poorly,_" said Sizzle, "_What was your trainer thinking of setting you up against me?_" She used her Slash attack again and knocked off Matt's goggles.

Matt fell on his back from the blow, his goggles with the Everstone shard in it went flying across the field. He seemed to be unconscious or at least unresponsive. Chloe spotted it too. "Oh nuts..." she muttered and tried to get May's attention.

"Don't tell me your Charmeleon was defeated just like that," called Alan, "Sizzle didn't even use any of her Fire attacks yet." Chloe was too busy looking for something to hide behind. She had a good feeling, judging from what may had told her about what happened at the center, what was coming.

Matt's eyes suddenly shot open, the pupils practically invisible, and he growled angrily at Sizzle. Alan and Sizzle looked surprised to see Matt was still conscious. They were even more surprised when he stood up and led out an angry roar. His first action was to let loose a Flamethrower attack that sent Sizzle flying across the field and into a rock with a crunch.

He then ran towards her, claws at the ready. Sizzle barely dodged the slash that cut a few neat slices from the rock she'd been against a few seconds before. Sizzle tried to fight back with an Ember attack, but all that did was make Matt angrier. "Uh oh," said May, "I think he's doing a Rage attack." It was a Rage attack, Matt grabbing Sizzle, bashing her into the rock before throwing her back across the field again. Sizzle was getting up as Matt was charging her. As he was about to Tackle her, she used her Tail Whip to trip him up.

He slid across the grass and flipped up again, turning unsteadily but still furiously. Sizzle looked down to see his goggles lying at her feet, the Everstone shard glinting. Sizzle had noticed the difference in Matt after she knocked off the goggles so as he started charging again, she picked up the goggles and threw them at Matt's head.

The goggles slapped against his head, knocking him back down to the floor. Matt seemed to come to his senses as he got back up without the murderous gaze. He held the goggles to his forehead with one claw. "_...thanks,_" he said. Sizzle knew of only one kind of Pokemon that flew into a rage without a piece of Everstone. "_You're a Pokethrope?_" she asked.

"_You guessed...good for you,_" panted Matt. The attacks he'd thrown while in his berserk rage had exhausted him. He had nothing left. "_Chloe's...my sis and the trainer thing's...a cover,_" he said. Sizzle nodded her head in understanding. "_If you could do one more attack do it. I'll take the fall,_" she said.

Matt nodded and tackled her in the chest as hard as he could. He was so tired he almost missed completely. "_Ok...stick a fork in me...I'm done._" he said. Sizzle however pretended to wince and clutched her gut. She staggered backwards a few steps before falling over theatrically. "Sizzle is unable to battle!" called May, "Matt is the winner!"

Alan was not convinced, advancing angrily on May. "Hey, my Pokemon had hers on the ropes. There's no way he won with a stupid Tackle attack," he said grabbing her. What he didn't see was Chloe walking up behind him. He did notice however when someone grabbed his wrist, pressed his first and third knuckle and his entire left side went numb.

"Hi, I'm Chloe Lynch, let her go or I'll press your second knuckle down and make your liver explode out your right ear." she said in a matter of fact voice. "Ok, ok," said Alan, "Just let me go so I can take Sizzle to the Pokemon Center." "I don't think so," said Chloe, "We had a bet, remember?" Alan glared. "No way, I still think you cheated...ow ow ow ow!" he said as Chloe pressed harder before letting him go.

"I don't think so. Hey May, what's the penalty for going back on deals?" she said, passing a tape recorder to her. May pressed the play button on the recorder and Chloe's voice played out, "Ok, but if I win, you let your Charmeleon loose. I doubt she enjoys your 'wonderful' company." "I didn't agree to that!" protested Alan.

Then Alan's voice played out, "Sure, like she's gonna lose against your Charmeleon." Matt, although still weak, smirked. "_Have fun, Sizzle,_" he muttered as Alan glared at Chloe. "I won't let you get away with this," he said to Chloe as he passed Sizzle's Pokeball over to May. "You know I could get a restraining order," said Chloe, adding in a mutter."A restraining order that entails the use of laser fire if you get anywhere near me."

Alan didn't seem convinced until she opened her jacket enough to show the shoulder rig with her pulse pistol. He left so fast Chloe half expected a sonic boom. Matt felt someone grab him and help him up. He looked up to see Sizzle. _"Thanks...thanks for taking the fall,"_ he said.

--

Later, Matt was lying down on the porch of the Petalburg Gym, resting from that tiring battle of his. He was thinking back to the battle. "_I wonder..._" he said when he heard a clunk at the window. He looked out to see Sizzle. It wasn't that hard to get the window open but he made sure that the Hoothoot, who had refused to leave, didn't wake.

"_Hey there. How's life treating you?_" he said, jumping down from the sill. "_A lot better now,_" said Sizzle, "_Being in the wild is so much better and more fun._" "_Cool, my sister's grilling Dr Zine for a cure so things are ok on my end too,_" he said before pausing. "_Why?_" he said. Sizzle looked confused and Matt repeated himself "_Why take the fall? You coulda pounded me after I'd been snapped out of my little episode._"

"_Well,_" said Sizzle, "_frankly I wanted out of Alan's ownership. He may be good at battling, but he doesn't have much of a personality. And I know I couldn't let you be his since you're a Pokethrope._" Matt nodded. "_Thanks, you're a good person, look after yourself,_" he said and turned to leave. "_Out of curiosity, what were you like when you were human?_" asked Sizzle.

Matt thought about it. "_Nothing particularly out of the ordinary..._" he said before getting an idea. He ran back inside and came back with something from where May and Max had hidden his equipment. There was a photo of Matt and Chloe, standing in front of the Statue of Liberty, Matt grinning like a loon and Chloe rolling her eyes, presumably at Matt's grin. Sizzle looked at the photo. "_You were pretty good-looking for a human,_" she said.

Matt smiled. "_Thanks..._" he said a bit sheepishly. "_I'll be seeing you later,_" said Sizzle as she got down from the sill and headed towards the bushes. Matt watched her go and thought to himself, 'You know, she's pretty cute for a fiery-tailed lizard.' Matt suddenly stopped. "_Oh boy..._" he said.

**Well…all's well that ends well for that chapter…join us next time and leave a review.**


	4. Chapter 4

First off, Pokemon and the related characters are property of Nintendo and not of me or cydra.

Exo-Gene and the related elements are a company I made up.

Finally…despite the name…this has no relationship to the pokemon episode of the same name

This is also an unofficial sequel to Cydra's Pokethropy Story, set a year after the events of that story. It is done with his permission

Key:  
Human speech  
_translated pokemon speech_

**CPS Chronicles: Loose Ends**

**Chapter 4**

The Pokemon Gyms were well known for their dedication to training strong Pokemon. The Pokemon found in the Gyms were strengthened through diligence and determination. Norman's Gym in Petalburg was known for training Pokemon with an even amount of statistics. Of course, this applied before Matt came along.

"_So there we were. Me and my friends against 20 IceOgremon with blasters,_" said Matt, sitting on a window sill in full storytelling mode.

May's Eevee, Squirtle, and Skitty were closely paying attention. Munchlax seemed more interested in his snack than Matt's story. It was hard to tell if Skaloth and Slaking were listening at all or just staring off into space.

Matt carried on, acting out some of it. "_One of em, comes up behind me and nearly pounds me into the ground like a nail into a plank but did I panic? Nope..._" said Matt, jumping down. "_I just pulled myself up, turned around, and punched it straight in the..._" As Matt turned around, he noticed that Blaziken was standing behind him. "_...shin?_"

"_Aren't you supposed to be practicing your Slash attack?_" said Blaziken. Matt gulped and pulled at an imaginary collar. "_Would you believe I finished early?_" he said. "_Good,_" said Blaziken, "_In that case, you wouldn't mind giving me a demonstration then._"

Matt gulped and walked over to the plank he'd been given for practice. "_Ok...now then...what did big bird say? Curse you, short attention span._" He readied his paws and brought his claws down on the plank with a "_HAI-YA!!! ARGH, MY PRECIOUS BONES!!!_" he screamed, jumping up and down, holding his throbbing paw and yelping.

Blaziken rubbed his forehead while Matt continued to hop around in pain before falling over. "_Was I ever really like this?_" he asked. "_I hurt so much,_" whimpered Matt from where he'd fallen down. "_Matt, if you don't practice, how can you ever expect to defeat stronger Pokemon?_" said Blaziken. "_Oh please. It's not like some insane rabid Pokemon's gonna rampage through the town, right?_" said Matt, leaning on the wooden target.

--

Meanwhile, out in a desert plain only a day's journey from Petalburg City, Butch and Cassidy were working on a machine. "I don't see why Dr. Namba has us haul this piece of junk all the way out to the middle of this sand trap," said Butch.

"At least it's not a Magikarp this time. I'm still sore about last time," said Cassidy. "Personally, I'm glad we don't have to get another Hippowdon," said Butch, "But I still think lugging this tin pile out here is a waste of time."

"Yeah, what does this junk do anyway?" he added, plugging in a power cell. "It's supposed to be an improved version of the evolution inducement signal that was used at Lake Rage," said Cassidy, "We should be able to get Pokemon to evolve without them going amuck."

"That's the point. Those kids we met a week ago weren't supposed to have ray guns but they did," said Butch, rubbing a bruise.

"Well, with tougher Pokemon, they shouldn't be a problem next time," said Cassidy as she finished installing a control panel, "Ok, that's done. Let's switch it on."

At the same time, a Skorupi waddled over a sand dune and stared at them with insect curiosity as the machine powered up.

The machine let out a faint signal. Skorupi twitched as if something was annoying it a lot. "It's not working," said Butch, "I'm not seeing anything." "Maybe I should turn it up," said Cassidy as she twisted a knob.

The Skorupi went bug eyed (no pun intended) and spun round a few times before glaring at the two Team Rocket grunts. The machine was giving it a Venusaur-sized headache.

"Ok, this thing has got to be busted," said Butch, "It's not doing squat." Cassidy switched the knob to full power and said, "We should be seeing something now."

The Skorupi went bug eyed again and glowed with evolution energy. The two grunts looked to see a Drapion behind them...a Drapion about twice the normal size.

"Ok..." said Butch, "It definitely worked." "I think you'd better turn it off now," said Cassidy. Butch ran for the power knob and twisted it as hard as he could. Sadly, this caused it to pop off instead. "Oh no," he said dully. The Drapion picked up the machine with ease and looked at them before hitting them with the machine and scuttling off towards the distant forest.

The machine was entirely ruined. Fortunately, the sand was soft enough that Butch and Cassidy were unharmed. "At least things can't get any worse," said Cassidy. Just then, the loud voice of Dr. Namba shouted out of their communicator. "What's taking so long?! What's happening with my machine?!"

"Well...I have good and bad news, boss. Good news is that it almost worked perfect. The bad news is that the Pokemon used it as a mallet," said Butch and winced as Dr Namba blew a gasket.

--

Matt was back in training under the stern gaze of Blaziken. _"Is this necessary?"_ he asked. _"Fire Spin attacks don't come automatically,"_ said Blaziken. _"Actually, I think I've heard of something called TMs that-"_ began Matt._ "Get back to work!"_ snapped Blaziken. Matt hastily complied and tried to get his flames to spiral by twirling his head around as he spat.

This sadly for Matt succeeded in almost frying Chloe as she came in. "FOR THE LOVE OF SMEG!" she yelled with such anger that even Blaziken stepped back a few paces.

"Matt, I've being hearing that you've been busy slacking off from your training to do silly things like telling 'war stories' to the other Pokemon," said Chloe, "Just because you're stuck as a Charmeleon doesn't mean you can laze about all day. What do you have to say for yourself?" _"Um... your ponytail's on fire?"_ said Matt.

Chloe didn't get what Matt said, but she followed his point. Matt and Blaziken sweatdropped as she ran out and into the pool used for Water Pokemon.

When Chloe came back, she looked so mad, Matt was surprised that steam wasn't coming off her wet body. Hoping to avoid punishment, he tried to look cute.

"We had a dog. If it didn't work for him, what makes you think you can succeed?" she said, picking Matt up by the top of his head.

_"Chloe, you know Charmeleon can't be dunked in water,"_ said Matt worriedly, _"That kills them, remember?"_

Chloe sighed. She was getting good at understanding, if not the actual words but what they were supposed to mean. "I'm not gonna dunk you. I'm going to do this," she said and brought her free hand down on Matt's head.

Matt winced in pain as his head began to throb. _"Now I know how a Psyduck feels,"_ he moaned.

Chloe dropped him. "I do not want a repeat of our last Pokemon battle. Your opponent might not be willing to throw the match next time," she said.

_"Chloe, it was just a friendly match..."_ started Matt. Chloe didn't understand him, but didn't matter anyways. "Did you forget that if you had lost, you'd have to stay with that creep and I would have to go on a date with him?" She picked him back up "...and that I'd make your life a world of hurt?" she hissed.

Matt gulped and tried to fight off the terrifying images that were entering his mind's eye. He wasn't succeeding very well.

He finally fell backwards. He'd fainted. Chloe sighed and walked out, bumping into May. "It's not going well. His flaming needs work. Do these TM's work on Pokethropes?" she said in a bored voice, wiping some soot off her face.

"I don't know," said May, "I don't know that much about Pokethropy. Maybe Matt just needs a change of tutors." "Ok," said Chloe, "We can start him off on Eevee. That couldn't be too hard, right?" Matt brightened up. No more drill sergeant Blaziken. He ran over and hugged Chloe's leg, gibbering happily.

--

His tone wasn't quite so ecstatic a few minutes later. Eevee had been listening to Matt's stories a bit too much. So when Matt came to learn from him, Eevee was trying to act like an army instructor, which was offset by her cuteness.

"_Look, you don't have to act like that,_" said Matt, in a tired voice. "_That's insubordination, soldier!_" snapped Eevee, "_Drop and give me 20!_" "_What? Pushups?_" asked Matt. "_No, 20 Pokeblocks, I'm hungry._"

Matt gave an 'I don't believe this' look. "_How does this help me train? I knew 10 ways to demolish hardened buildings, five of which use only a can of cola and a sock._"

"_Being tough's not everything in a Pokemon battle,_" said Eevee, "_You've got to be wily._" "_Oh please,_" said Matt, "_I can outsmart any Pokemon I-_" He was cut off when Eevee used Charm.

Matt didn't stand a chance. "_Aw... that's so cute,_" he said. Before he could realize what was happening, Eevee headbutted him in the gut.

He shook himself to his senses and said, "_Ow...point taken...I'll be back once I locate where my pancreas went._"

"Hmm, maybe Matt would be able to train outside," said May, "He could go practice in the forest." "Huh? What? You say something?" asked Chloe. She hurriedly hid the video camera she was holding seconds ago.

"It's a good way to help Pokemon get stronger. As long as he has his goggles and gloves he won't go on battle frenzy either," said May.

"Can I come along too?" asked Max. "Max, this is kinda Matt and Chloe's thing," said May. "Oh, come on," said Max, "I need to stretch my legs. Besides, there's a full moon coming. I need to get the wildness out of my system." Chloe sighed. "It'll be fine. It's not like some insane uber-Pokemon's on the loose."

--

Matt jumped over a tree root and looked around. He didn't know if it was his Pokethrope side but he felt great now he was out the gym.

From what he heard, Charmeleon preferred to live on or near mountains, particularly volcanoes. But the forest was a pretty exhilarating experience to his Pokemon nature.

Chloe sat on a fallen log and watched Matt look around, clearly enjoying himself. She personally still wasn't used to what was going on and had to mentally remind herself that the large wolf creature keeping an eye was May's brother and the little dragon thing was her own brother. "This would definitely be the weirdest thing I've ever experienced, but the day's not done yet," she said to herself.

But the odd thing was that the group hadn't found any Pokemon at all in the forest. Which was odd because Chloe heard that there were almost always Pokemon in here. It was so deathly still.

Matt was too high on life to notice, sadly letting a little of his new self out but Max had more practice and could sense the wrongness. Chloe could too. Her merc senses were screaming at her and she pulled out her stunner.

"_Say, Bug types are weak to Fire types, right?_" asked Matt. "_Yes,_" said Max. "_Then I can train with the local insect life here,_" said Matt, "_A couple of rounds with a big bug should have me in fighting condition in no time._"

He suddenly smelled something and turned as a bush was literally uprooted to reveal the biggest bug Matt had ever seen. "_JACKPOOOT!_" called Matt and got into the fighting stance Blaziken had taught him.

"_Matt, two things,_" said Max, "_First off, that's a Drapion, a Poison/Dark type. Second off, Drapion aren't supposed to be this big._"

"_So? It's just a giant bug,_" said Matt and spat a Flamethrower at the Drapion who seemed more curious then hurt.

The Drapion roared loudly and opened its mouth as it unleashed a powerful Pin Missile attack.

Matt yelped and dodged the many Pin Missiles that bounced around him. He finally got to a stop and said to the Drapion, "_Hah...try aiming next time._" The Drapion glared and said, "_Ok,_" and jumped into the air to land on Matt with a crash.

Matt winced and crawled out from under Drapion. He was pretty sure he was this close to busting a rib. "_Ok, you're tough,_" said Matt, "_But I bet I'm tougher!_" He jumped up and latched onto Drapion's arm with a Fire Fang attack.

Drapion roared in pain and said, "_Call that a bite? THIS is a bite!_" unleashing a Thunder Fang attack on Matt's tail.

Matt lit up like a Christmas light. He cried in pain as the electricity surged through his smaller body. When Drapion dropped him, Matt found that he had trouble getting his muscles to respond.

Drapion laughed and readied another Pin Missile only for a few stunner rounds to bounce off his shell. He turned to see Chloe firing at him.

Drapion roared angrily and swiped at Chloe. Chloe had to dodge to avoid the large scorpion's claws.

The Drapion growled angrily before swiping to knock the lunging Max into a tree. "_Hah, I guess those idiot humans did me a favor,_" said Drapion.

"_I'm...not down...yet,_" groaned Matt as he struggled to get up. "_Then I better fix that, shouldn't I?_" said Drapion. A spiral of water started spinning around Drapion's tail. Before Matt could move, Drapion turned around and slammed his tail onto Matt in a powerful Aqua Tail attack.

Matt yelped as he ended up smashing into the tree next to Max, his tail flame flickering a bit. "_Ouch...time out_," he moaned before fainting.

Drapion turned to Max and said, "_I'll deal with him tomorrow. Tell him to meet me or I'll rip up every plant, rock, or building to find which one he's hiding under._" With that, the Drapion stomped away.

--

Back at the gym, May was shocked to see the state everyone was in. "It was super-roach or something," said Chloe.

"That Drapion was twice the size it should have been," said Max, "And twice the aggression." "It tossed your brother and mine around like they were plushies and shrugged off my stunners like they weren't even there," said Chloe, putting Matt, who'd she'd carried back on the table. "He got beaten bad," she said.

"He needs healing right away," said May. She ran out of the room and came back with a hyper potion bottle. "Good thing my dad always keeps some just in case."

Chloe looked at the spray bottle in a skeptical way. "He doesn't need polishing, he needs a medic," she said. "It's a hyper potion," said May, "It's used to heal Pokemon."

Chloe sighed. "I'll never get used to this." she said as May sprayed some of the potion on Matt. After a minute or so, his tail flame started burning normally again and he came round, groaning in Pokemon.

"_What did that guy hit me with?_" asked Matt, "_A swimming pool?_" "Actually, that was Aqua Tail," said Max.

"_Feels like I was run over by a very wet subway train,_" said Matt, gloomily.

"Well you better get used to it," said Max, "Because that Drapion wants to finish you off tomorrow."

Matt gulped. "_Mummy,_" he squeaked.

"Are you out of your mind?!" shouted Chloe, "Matt can't fight that thing! It'll bulldoze him into a smear." "If he doesn't, that Drapion will root up everything until it finds Matt," said Max.

Matt gulped more before getting up. "_Then I'd better learn how to beat him...quick,_" he said, his voice showing he was scared as hell.

"That Drapion sounds like it's really tough," said May. "It is," said Max, "and the only type of attacks that are super effective against Drapion are Ground types."

Chloe looked at Matt who looked like he was having a fear-fuelled heart attack. "Can Charmeleon learn any of those type of attacks?" she said.

"Let's see," said May as she looked at her Pokedex, "It says here that Charmeleon can learn Mud-Slap and Dig."

"Sounds good enough. Now how do we get him to learn in....how long did we have?" she said. Max said, "Till tomorrow." Chloe deflated. "My brother has the attention span of a rock...he's dead." An angry cry of 'CHAR!' confirmed Matt didn't appreciate her support.

"Well," said May, "I don't have any Pokemon that knows Mud-Slap, but Eevee knows Dig. Maybe he can teach it to Matt." Matt looked at Eevee and gulped.

"Uh, May," said Chloe, "Eevee didn't really seem to be that focused when he was trying to tutor Matt before." "Oh, that was just how to battle," said May, "Teaching a move should be completely different."

Matt, however, appeared to be trying to climb into a cupboard. "Erm...you sure about that?" said Chloe.

"C'mon, it's not like Matt's never dug as a human," said May. "True," said Chloe, "But it's mostly to bury mines and bodies."

Matt stuck his head out and said in Pokemon that there had never been any bodies except for the accident with the translator droid.

When Max translated what Matt said, May looked confused. "Translator droid?" she asked. "Don't ask," said Chloe.

Matt turned to look at Eevee who was grinning in a worrying way. "_Please be normal,_" said Matt.

Unfortunately for Matt, he forgot that Eevee was a Normal-type Pokemon. So when Matt asked Eevee to 'be normal', she interpreted it as meaning being herself, which meant like of bouncy excitedness.

Matt sat down after a bit. "_Please focus for a second. I need to know Dig...wait...I know how to dig,_" he said, annoyed.

"_Ok then,_" said Eevee, running over and drawing an X in the dirt, "_Start from where you are and use Dig to come up here._"

Everyone watched as Matt dug a hole a little unsteadily and vanished from view. After two minutes, Chloe wandered over to the hole. "Ok...I think he got lost." A second later, there was a crash from a broom cupboard followed by some Charmeleon swearing and, as some of the cleaning chemicals were flammable, the door also being blown off its hinges a second later.

Matt walked out of the house, coughing and looking slightly singed. "_I want a do-over,_" he said. He dug down into the ground before anyone could stop him.

A second later, there was another crash outside. Everyone ran out to see Matt climbing out a hole by a boulder with a lump on his head.

"_Grr, I am going to get this!_" he shouted and dug in furiously. He dug so swiftly he wasn't sure if he was going in the right direction or not. When he surfaced, he found himself under the shade of a lotus tree. A Munchlax was leaning against it and was wearing a conical straw hat. "_Konichiwa, Lizardo-san,_" said the Munchlax.

Matt screamed and leapt with surprising agility into the tree before looking down and recognizing the Munchlax as May's "_Why you little..._" he said and attempted to jump on Munchlax.

Munchlax merely took three paces to the right and Matt landed head-first on a root.

The others arrived to see Matt gibber in Pokemon "_Yea maaa...I'll get up for school._"

Chloe rubbed her temples and said, "This is going to be a long day."

--

A while later and Matt's aim hadn't improved much, especially when he'd arrived in the cleaning cupboard again and been blown onto the second floor via the ceiling.

He walked down gloomily down to the ground floor again and said gloomily to Max, "_I'm dead meat, aren't I?_"

"Hey, learning a new attack is always hard," said Max, "You wouldn't believe how long it took Beautifly to get the hang of Silver Wind."

"_Did they ever blow up the cleaning cupboard...twice?_" said Matt. "Well, no," admitted Max, "But so far, your power's ok, you just need to make sure your attack hits. Maybe if you watched some other Pokemon do it, you'll get the hang of it."

"_Fine...let's see Drill Sergeant Eevee do better,_" said Matt, glaring at his instructor. "Ok, Eevee, use Dig!" called May after hearing the translation. Eevee immediately dug underground. After a few minutes, she surfaced back up right through the evasive X.

"_Show off,_" muttered Matt as Eevee went by. "_If he can do it that easily, I should be able to,_" said Matt. He dug down into the ground again. A minute later, Matt surfaced again. To his credence, he was only five feet away from the X. Sadly, that five feet was in the cleaning cupboard again...

--

Meanwhile, Butch and Cassidy were trying to find the giant Drapion. Namba was less than pleased to hear about his machine's destruction and ordered the duo to capture the Drapion that it made evolve, for study purposes of course.

"Is there an Electrode around here? I heard another explo...is that a burning mop?" said Butch as a burning mop head landing a few feet in front of them.

"Who cares?" said Cassidy, "Let's just bag that Drapion. And make sure we get the drop on it instead of the other way around."

Sadly, the sinister air was spoiled when a bucket landed on her head, having followed the mop on its flight.

Cassidy pulled off the bucket and said, "What's going on here? Is a janitor's convention being bombed or something?"

A litre bottle of cleaning fluid landed on the mop head in front of them. "Isn't that stuff flammable?" said Butch.

--

Chloe cocked her head as a distant explosion coupled with two screams was heard. "Did anyone hear that?"

"_What does it matter?_" said Matt, "_I'll never get this move down. How can I when I can't see what's going on?_"

May said, "Why don't you go to the Diglett colony on the other side of the forest? They could help with your aim," she said.

Matt responded immediately. "Matt says 'Let's go!'," said Max.

--

A little later, Max had led Matt to a field near the forest. "_Ok...it's a field. Where are the Pokemon?_" he said to Max.

Suddenly, a brown furry head with only two black eyes and a red nose popped out of the ground. "_Who's there?_" it asked.

Matt screamed and jumped behind Max before glaring at the Diglett. "_DON'T DO THAT!_" Chloe was less than impressed. "That's a Diglett?" she said, "It looks more like some lawn ornament."

The Diglett also looked up at Chloe said, "_That's a human? Looks like a space alien._" It was worth noting that Chloe had dug out her combat armor in case the Drapion tried an early battle.

Max decided to cut straight to the point. "Diglett, this Charmeleon here needs your help. He needs to learn how to use Dig properly before tomorrow. Can you help him?"

The Diglett looked at Matt. "_A Pokethrope needs our help?_" Matt snapped at this, "_IS THERE SOME KIND OF SIGN ON ME SOMEWHERE?_"

"Pokethropes have a particular scent that can instantly be told apart from normal Pokemon," explained Max, "But it's not common knowledge, even among Pokemon." "_Then why do they keep recognizing me?_" moaned Matt gloomily.

Max scratched the back of his head and said, "Well, most of the Pokemon around here know about me. And with your odd scent, it makes them easier for them to tell you're a Pokethrope too."

Matt sighed. "_Well...let's get this over with,_" said Matt, looking for a safe place to draw the target. "_No,_" said the Diglett. It went back under before popping up again nearby. "_Down here,_" it said, indicating the tunnel it left behind.

Matt looked at Max. "Please tell me he was kidding," he said. "_If you wish to know how to move through the ground,_" said Diglett, "_you must learn underground._" Chloe looked at Max. "Are they telling Matt to do what I think they are?" she said.

"If you mean have Matt follow the Diglett into their underground tunnels, then yes, they are," said Max.

Chloe glared but sat down. _"You can't be going along with this,"_ moaned Matt.

After Max translated, Chloe said, "We've only got 21 hours to learn Dig before Drapion comes back. I don't think we're likely to find a Mud-Flap tutor or TM by then. And if training with these moles are the only way, well, down you go." Before Matt could move out of the way, Chloe kicked him into the hole.

Matt landed on his head at the bottom of the tunnel. "_Look at all the pretty birdies,_" he gibbered.

"_If you're ready,_" said the Diglett, having already been down there, "_Let's begin._" "_Yes, Captain Pugwash,_" gibbered Matt, getting back up unsteadily. The Diglett's training was actually not that dissimilar to what Matt was doing with Eevee. However, there was one big difference.

Matt looked at the leader of the Diglett colony, a Dugtrio. "_Ok...why the blindfold?_" he said, despite the fact the 'blindfold' consisted of mud over the eyes.

"_You are relying too much on your sight,_" said Dugtrio, "_Using Dig is not about sight, but touch. You need to feel your way through the earth to find your target._"

Matt sighed and put the mud over his eyes. "_Ok...which direction?_" he said before walking into the side of the tunnel.

"_You're to use Dig on this mushroom,_" said Dugtrio, indicating a large mushroom that was growing not too far.

"_Where?_" said Matt, thinking silently that maybe he should have put the blindfold on before asking where the target was. "_You should be able to find it,_" said Dugtrio, "_Just look for the scent._" "_What scen...WOW, that is nasty,_" said Matt, almost changing color to green as he got a whiff of the mushroom. He dug into the ground and tried to feel his way along.

When Matt resurfaced, he was several feet away from the mushroom. "_Argh! Why can't I get this right?_" shouted Matt. "_Perhaps it is because you're thinking too much like a human,_" said Dugtrio, "_If you want to learn a Pokemon move, you must think like a Pokemon._"

"_Oh yes...that so easy_," said Matt and jumped as a Diglett, at a silent command nabbed his goggles. "_HEY...Don't take those!_" he said, trying to grab them. "_Those goggles are what's keeping your wildness at bay,_" said Dugtrio, "_While that may be a good thing, it will block your ability to learn like a Pokemon. You must use your Pokemon side in order to learn Dig._"

"_My Pokethrope side includes an urge to bounce every Pokemon in range off the scenery,_" said Matt before shuddering as the absence of the Everstone kicked in. "_There is more to Pokethropy than that,_" said Dugtrio, "_Your friend was able to learn to overcome his drive to battle, so can you._"

Matt could already feel the urge to fight bouncing off the edges of his mind, squeezing his eyes shut as he tried to hold it back. "_Now, Dig for the mushroom,_" commanded Dugtrio.

Matt opened his eyes again and looked at the mushroom before digging down into the ground. This time he could somehow sense which direction to go. Before, he had simply been trying to dig through ground. But now he can really feel what's around him. It's as if he was able to move through the ground like a corridor filled with doors, each door presenting a new direction to take and he knew which doors to use.

He finally shot up and shot through the mushroom, landing beside it.

"Cool," he said. He could still feel the Pokethrope side at the back of his mind like an internal itch, but it wasn't desperate for a fight any longer. A bonus was he could also passively feel all the instincts that came with his Charmeleon form.

"_Excellent,_" said Dugtrio, "_Of course, we'll have to do this a couple more times to make sure you've got it. Then you'll move on to an actual Pokemon target. I'm sure one of the Diglett won't mind._"

Matt sighed. "_This could be a while,_" he said, rubbing his head.

--

Several hours later, Matt returned back to Petalburg Gym. He was covered with so much dirt, he felt like a Wormadam with a Sand Cloak.

Chloe laughed. "What happened to you...where are the goggles?" she said, her laughter vanishing as she noticed the missing goggles.

"_Um, wait, I have them on me somewhere,_" said Matt. He looked over himself and spotted his goggles embedded in some dirt on his back.

Chloe looked at Max. "Shouldn't he have gone crazy without them?" "Hey, I can control myself and I don't need goggles," said Max. "I suppose but the first sign of Matt going nutso and I'll staple the goggles to his head," said Chloe. Matt yelped and tried to hide.

"So Matt," said Max, "Did you learn Dig or what?" Matt nodded and looked at the X before diving head first into the ground and shooting through the X. "Great," said Chloe, "So you're ready to take on that Drapion?" Matt nodded and cracked his knuckles.

--

About an hour later, Matt was already to fight. They started heading through the forest to find Drapion. Max and May had come along too, just in case. Just as they had been leaving Officer Jenny had mentioned that some Team Rocket grunts had been seen.

"We should be able to find Drapion easily," said Chloe, "A 9-foot purple scorpion should stick out like a sore thumb."

Techo and Wilson had come along, including the Hoothoot that was again on Techo's helmet. "I give up, if he wants to stay there, LET HIM!" said the gloomy merc. They didn't notice Butch and Cassidy peering out some bushes.

"Well, we may not be able to find that Drapion," said Butch. "But a couple of Pokemon to experiment with should make Dr. Namba feel better," said Cassidy.

"Yeah. That new doctor that got hired is weird...specially since her partners got kidnapped," said Butch before yelping as he recognized Chloe. "It's that girl who had the raygun."

"Hold your Ponyta," said Cassidy, "She doesn't have her raygun. In fact, none of them do." Butch smirked and said, "They should be easy pickings."

The group jumped as Butch and Cassidy jumped out in front of them. "Oh no. Not these idiots," muttered Chloe.

"Prepare for trouble," said Cassidy. "Make it double," said Butch. "Can we skip the stupid motto thing and get to the part where we kick your butts?" said Techo.

Wilson said, "We left the morphguns at the ship." Techo then said a rude word under his breath. "Alright," said Cassidy, "Hand over your Pokemon and we may let you leave without a thrashing." Chloe sighed. "Oh please," she said. Techo said, "Why do all room temperature villains have corny lines?"

"Maybe you kids need a lesson in pain," said Butch, "Go Primeape!" "Go Granbull!" shouted Cassidy. They both released their Pokemon.

Matt found himself nose to nose with a Pokemon that resembled a deep purple bulldog. "_Hello,_" he said weakly.

Wilson and Techo both looked at a beige ape-like Pokemon with metal bangles on its wrists and ankles, a pig-like snout, and an incredibly angry look on his face. "I don't get it," said Wilson, "What's the deal with this guy?" Suddenly, the Pokemon grabbed Wilson and started Thrashing him around before tossing him to the ground and jumping on him.

Techo gulped as it turned its attention to him only for Matt to jump on his head and start pounding on it. Max however sneaked towards some bushes to transform. The last thing he needed was Team Rocket to know what he could do.

"_Show me what you got, pig face!_" said Matt. Suddenly, Primeape grabbed Matt's throat. "_That's quite a grip you've got there!_" squeaked Matt.

Matt suddenly twitched and his eyes started glaring before biting Primeape's hand with a growl and Fire Punching the Pokemon.

Primeape was hurt, but hardly ready to quit. He did a Fury Punch attack on Matt which he countered with Fury Swipes. However, he was so preoccupied with Primeape, he forgotten about Granbull who was getting ready to use Crunch on him. So it was fortunate that Max jumped out in Mightyena form and Tackled Granbull.

Techo picked up a sturdy looking branch and tried to hit Primeape, only succeeding in upsetting the Pokemon and being punched by it. Matt growled at the Fighting Pokemon. "_You don't know who you're fighting,_" he said, his human and Pokethrope personalities mixed.

"_Who cares?_" snapped Primeape, _"I'm going to turn you into a red pulp._" He drew his arm back for a Mega Punch.

Matt grabbed the incoming punch with both hands and snarled ferally. Suddenly, Primeape was the victim of a Rage attack himself as Matt smashed him into the ground several times.

Meanwhile, Max and Granbull were circling each other. "You don't smell right," said Granbull.

"_Figured it out on your own, did you?_" taunted Max.

Granbull snarled. "_Laugh this off,_" she said and tried another crunch attack and stopped. Chloe had sneaked up and shoved a rock in Granbull's mouth. "Bad dog!" she yelled.

To Chloe's surprise, Granbull's Crunch simply went right through it. He turned and growled at Chloe.

"Erm...sit?" she said, stepping back. "_Hey! Your battle's with me!_" shouted Max. When Granbull ignored him, Max used Fire Fang on Granbull's ear.

Granbull tried to turn round to bite Max which wasn't made easy by Max's location. "_GAH...GET OFF, YOU FRE..._" she began and stopped. Chloe had found a new use for the rock...a mallet.

Granbull stumbled and nearly fell over. That's when Max let go and used Tackle. That knocked Granbull out. About the same time, Primeape also fainted from Matt's pounding. Matt glared at Primeape before looking at Butch and Cassidy with a snarl.

"Hey! That was just for starters," said Butch. "We've got more Pokemon where they come from," said Cassidy. _"Nah, not in the mood for that right now,"_ said Matt, _"See ya!"_ With one powerful Flamethrower, Matt sent Butch, Cassidy, and their Pokemon flying. "We're blasting off again!" they shouted before disappearing into the sky.

Matt looked at the damage he and Primeape caused before shrugging. His Pokethrope side going silent again. "_Did I do that?_" he said to Max.

"_Don't be so hard on yourself,_" said Max, "_Primeape wouldn't have shown any less mercy. You needed to defend yourself._"

Matt seemed more impressed then worried. "_Cool. I actually won a fight,_" he said. "_Of course, Drapion's a lot bigger than Primeape, but you should be able to handle him, right?_" said Max. Matt said, "_Hey...how'd you use Fire Fang?_" confused.

"_I watched you use it a couple of times and decided to learn it myself,_" said Max. Matt sighed. "_Well...maybe Drapion's late,_" he said and jumped as the aforementioned Drapion landed behind him.

Techo looked up at Drapion. "That's Drapion?" he said, "He doesn't look so tough as you-" Before Techo could finish, Drapion knocked him into a tree with one swipe.

Matt followed Techo's flight into the tree before glaring at Drapion. "_Hey...nobody thumps Techo but me,_" he said.

"_Oh yeah?_" said Drapion, "_What are you going to do about it?_" "_Er...erm…_" said Matt, not thinking that far ahead. "_Well, at least I know what to do about you,_" said Drapion before jumping enough for another Body Slam. However, Matt was prepared this time and quickly dug down.

Drapion landed with a crash and looked around. "_Where'd he go?_" he said, before being knocked over as Matt surfaced behind him and hit him.

Drapion winced in pain. That Dig attack really hurt. But he was far from done. "_Tough little guy, aren't you? But I've got moves of my own._" He opened his mouth as his fangs started glowing bright purple.

Matt gulped and backed up. "_You don't wanna bite me. You don't know where I've been,_" he said.

Drapion couldn't reply at the moment and lunged forward. Matt hopped back and narrowly avoided being poisoned by the Poison Fang attack.

Drapion turned and tried another Poison Fang attack, making Matt jump and leapfrog him.

Matt was knocked back and got back up, growling, his Pokethrope side mixing again. "_I don't want...to fight you,_" said Matt. His urge to fight was practically bouncing around his skull.

"_Too bad,_" said Drapion before using Knock Off. Chloe gasped as Matt's gloves were knocked off him.

Matt growled, gripping his head in pain. "_Your...funeral,_" he said before opening his eyes again, the pupils shrinking to feral form. He turned to face the Drapion, practically foaming at the mouth.

Matt let out a massive Fire Spin. Drapion shielded his face against the flames, but it still burned his body. As soon as the attack ended, one of his pincers glowed purple and reached forward and hit Matt with Poison Jab.

Matt didn't even seem to feel it and brought his claws down on Drapion's arm with a Slash attack.

Drapion and swung his tail around. Before Matt could react, the tail hit him in a more powerful Poison Jab.

Matt was knocked back and got back up but fell down to one knee. Despite this he kept trying to reach his opponent, all that he was focused on.

Chloe noticed a glowing purple wound where Drapion had hit him. "What's wrong with him?" asked Chloe. "I think that attack poisoned him," said May.

Matt didn't even seem to notice despite the poison was clearly wearing him down. "_Beat...you,_" he snarled. "_I don't think so,_" said Drapion, "_But I do think it's time to finish this._" Drapion opened his mouth and balls of orange energy started charging up in it. "He's powering up a Hyper Beam!" shouted May.

Matt glared and began to glow blue before running at Drapion to knock into him. "_Grrr...not over yet,_" he said as Drapion staggered.

"What was that?" asked Wilson. Max, who had changed back to human form, said, "I think that was Dragon Rush." It apparently was because it made Drapion flinch and the energy gathered up for his Hyper Beam dispersed harmlessly.

Matt shot into the ground again and Drapion looked around. "_Grr...not again,_" he said and was sent flying as Matt hit him with a Pokethrope rage powered Dig attack.

Drapion roared in pain and fell to the ground, down for the count. Matt landed and advanced on Drapion, obviously intent on finishing the job in his rage. Chloe, however, was not having any of it, landing on Matt and forcing the goggles onto the struggling Pokemon.

Matt staggered as his adrenaline levels went back to normal. "Whoa, what a rush," he said, "I don't feel so good."

Chloe looked at the poisoned wound and, though she didn't get what her brother had said, she had a good idea what was coming and turned her brother just in time as the poison made him sick.

"That Drapion will not be happy to wake up and find Charmeleon puke on him," said Techo. "What are we going to do with it, anyways?" said Willson, "It's too dangerous to leave in the wild." Chloe looked at Techo. "You still got that teleporter grenade, Techo?" she said with an evil grin.

--

Meanwhile, Butch and Cassidy were being berated for doing a sloppy job. "This is completely outrageous!" shouted Dr. Namba, "Letting yourselves be beaten so easily! You're almost as bad as Jessie and James!"

"Look...You said it wouldn't be a repeat of that damn Red Gyrados," said Butch, rubbing the burn on his arm. Behind them, a faint glow began to appear, depositing Drapion, who was just coming round, behind them.

The Drapion was not happy about beating beaten by Matt. He was less than thrilled to see Matt's breakfast on him. He roared loudly at the Team Rocket members screamed. A little camera-bot scuttled out and up to a vantage point.

--

Chloe sniggered and showed the image to the others. "Who says there's nothing good on the telly anymore?"

--

Back at the gym…

"Boy, fighting like that was great," said Matt, practicing his Fury Swipes, "I can get used to this kind of thing."

He looked over to see Chloe looking gloomy. "I'm losing him..." she said, apparently on her comm to Dr. Zine back at the ship, "You had better have a cure soon. If my brother is lost...you won't make it back to Central Station."

"Not to worry, miss," said Zine, putting a lot of sarcasm on 'miss', "I am close to a breakthrough." "Ok...you'd better or I'll give you a real breakthrough...through an airlock," said Chloe and turned it off. She looked down to see Matt had wandered over. "Hey bro...try to hold on," she said

_"Sis, it's not like I'm losing my mind or anything,"_ said Matt, _"It's not that bad. Though I'd like to taller than punting-size."_Chloe didn't understand a word he'd said and just sighed.

Then Matt said to himself, _"I wonder, do those tunnels I Dig stay there or go away by themselves?"_ _"They'll go away in about an hour,"_ said Eevee. _"Wait, then that means..."_ began Matt and was cut off as there was a sudden yell outside when Norman stumbled into the hole Matt had dug earlier. Matt gulped. _"Nobody can prove anything," _he said.

--

Back at Team Rocket's base, Dr. Namba was putting an icebag on his head. Not only was it a hassle to put that Drapion in a cage, but it had given him a monstrous headache to boot.

A grunt came in. "Doctor. The Drapion escaped by kicking down a wall," he said. Namba said, "Good...I mean, too bad...what else?" The grunt stepped aide to see a teenage female human. "Doctor Vanya, previously of Exo-Gene corporation. I'm here to work with Doctors, Zine, Grouder and Kane," she said.

"You're too late for that," said Namba, "Those three are all gone. From what I heard, at least two of them are dead." "Oh...shame," said Vanya, not sounding worried at all, "I presume their projects are intact. I will carry on their work."

Namba looked at her and said, "And what work would that be, exactly?" Vanya gave a thin smile and said, "The Pokethropy project."

**Uh oh…a new doc on the scene who knows what the three docs were up too…this doesn't look like it'll be good. Please Read n Review.**


	5. Chapter 5

First off, Pokemon and the related characters are property of Nintendo and not of me or cydra.

Exo-Gene and the related elements are a company I made up.

Finally…despite the name…this has no relationship to the pokemon episode of the same name

This is also an unofficial sequel to Cydra's Pokethropy Story, set a year after the events of that story. It is done with his permission.

Key:  
Human speech  
_translated pokemon speech_

**CPS Chronicles: Loose Ends**

**Chapter 5**

Dr. Zine felt like the unluckiest Splitter on this planet, which wasn't helped by the fact that he was the only Splitter on the planet since his colleagues got killed. He wouldn't have minded that if a group of mercenaries weren't forcing him to concoct a cure for a disease he barely knew anything about, with promises of pain, death, or worse, turning him over to the Combine if he did not comply.

What really annoyed him was Anderson who was his guard. The human's accent really raised his spines. "Look...this is a delicate procedure...you can guard just as well outside," he said.

"I don't think so, horned toad," said Anderson, "I'm keeping an eye on you like a buzzard on a critter ready to croak."

"SHUT UP! JUST BECAUSE YOU ARE ON EARTH AGAIN DOES NOT MEAN THE ACCENT IS COMPULSARY! I HEARD YOU SPEAK NORMAL YESTERDAY WHEN NOBODY WAS AROUND!" screamed Dr Zine.

"But I like the way your spines go up when you're mad," said Anderson, "Kinda makes you look like a frilled lizard."

Zine snarled and was about to grab him when the computer's program finished. "Positive results confirmed...bio-nanites programmed," it said.

Zine glared at Anderson and walked over. "Confirm results?" he said. The computer beeped, "Confirmed to an error rate of 0.00012%"

"Hmm, possible effects within margin of error?" asked Zine. "Negligible," said the computer smugly.

"Good enough for me," said Zine. He turned to Anderson and said, "Tell that harpy, I mean Miss Lynch that I've got a treatment ready." Anderson nodded.

--

Matt was asleep in the area of Petalburg Gym used for Fire Pokemon. Most of the visiting Fire Pokemon had given the Pokethrope a wide berth. Matt didn't mind that so much. So long as none of them tried to get rid of him like that Feraligatr, he can focus on his well-needed naps. Plus, Balziken was around and would happily back him up...probably.

When Chloe came to get him, Matt was apparently having a chasing dream as his legs were moving on their own. "_Come back here, Munchlax...pest,_" he muttered and yelled as Chloe picked him up and hugged him. "Zine's come through!" she said, happily as a yawning May came in.

"Do you know how early it is?" she groaned. "_Yeah, what she said,_" said Matt, "_For once, I nearly caught that annoying- What was that you said?_"

Chloe hadn't understood a word of what Matt had said and turned to May. "Dr Zine's finally got a cure ready. Anderson's bringing him to administer it," she said.

Matt stared for a few seconds before he started cheering. His tail wagged with delight, but unfortunately, he forgot that the tip had a flame on it. Chloe was so happy she didn't even mind that her shirt sleeve was set alight.

--

A little later, when Chloe had changed into a new shirt, May was with her as they walked to the ship. "Now remember," said Chloe, "You can't tell a comprehensible being about this and don't freak out about anything." "Oh please," said May, "I've seen enough scary stuff to be able to keep my head."

Anderson walked down the ramp and waved to a figure who walked down in the shadows. "May? This is Dr Zine," said Chloe as Zine walked into proper view.

Dr. Zine had suffered a few too many beatings lately, primarily provoked ones, to be able to adopt a human form at the moment. Not to mention the mercs had neglected giving May an actual description of the Splitter. So when she saw Dr. Zine, May screamed, "AH! SPACE MONSTER!" Then she grabbed a large stick and started whacking Zine with it.

Zine yelped. "Ah, please madam! Stop hitting me!" he said between whacks. Techo and Anderson watched May's panicked attack on Zine. "I told you she'd start hitting him," said Anderson, "Pay up."

Techo handed over some coins as Zine screamed some more before grabbing the stick. "Please stop hitting me, madam. I am not a barbarian and anyhow, I'm not hungry."

Chloe was inclined to let May go at it until she got tired, but Zine's brain was too valuable to be given a dozen concussions. "Ok, May, that's enough," said Chloe, "May, May, MAY!" She grabbed the stick and said, "Relax already, he won't harm you, especially after you asserted yourself."

"I am not an animal. I have 14 PhD's in genetic and nano-technology and an IQ of 1025..." Zine said, rubbing his head.

"Sorry," said May, "I thought you might have wanted to eat me or probe me or something." Zine glared at her and muttered several nasty things in Splitter about female human teens regarding their mentality, hormones, and self-control.

Chloe kicked Zine. "Look...where's the cure? This better not be a false alarm or we let May continue," she said.

Zine winced and said, "It's right here." He held up a small capsule filled with the nanite solution he had made. "There is a very slim margin that this may not be the 100% cure you've been looking, but any side effects should be minimal and temporary."

Chloe nodded. "Ok...give him the tablet." Zine walked towards Matt who glared. "This is for your own goo...URK!" he said as Matt used Flamethrower. "_Not likely, gecko man,_" he said in Pokemon.

Fortunately, Zine had the foresight of putting a flame-retardant balm on his skin. Zine shrugged and said, "Could have been worse, the little devil could have bit me. And since the virus is starting to generate his saliva glands, I don't want to be the first to see if it's applicable to my kind."

Matt smirked and wiggled his eyebrows before attempting to bite Zine on the foot, only to wince. "I took the liberty of borrowing some battle armor just in case...including some boots," said Zine smugly, taking advantage of Matt's dazed state to shove the tablet down the Pokethrope's throat.

Matt gagged and hacked, but the pill went into his stomach nonetheless. "How long before it kicks in?" asked Chloe. "Hard to tell," said Zine as he hurriedly wiped the saliva off his hand and arm, "But I would suggest leaving him in a room with clothing as soon as you can." Matt staggered around before falling over. Having someone shove their arm down your throat does tend to send your marbles a bit weird.

--

The next morning, Matt came too and shook his head. "Oh, my head," he said, rubbing his head and stopped. No scales. Chloe woke up with a shock as a cry of 'WOO HOO!'

"What was that?" asked Chloe. "I have real thumbs again!" shouted a familiar voice. The voice faltered. "...and no pants...please tell me some spare gears out there," said Matt's voice. Chloe would have run to Matt and hugged them, only his current state would have made it awkward then. Instead, she went to find some of Matt's laundry.

A few minutes later, Chloe was standing outside with May and Max as the door opened and Matt came out. "My neck's still stiff," he said and noticed their states. "What?" he said.

"Your eyes," said Chloe. "What about them?" asked Matt. She handed him a mirror and he looked in it. His eyes were still the same bluish-grey as a Charmeleon's. "Ok, that's not what I had hoped," he said, "But it's not that irregular, right?"

"Actually, yes. We don't have any excuse for it...but," said Chloe and shoved some shades on Matt. "That works though."

"Ok," said Matt, "So, should I avoid moonlight or anything? I'm not just going to change back without warning, am I?"

"Well...Zine said that everything should be fine, but we have some spare tablets just in case," said Chloe, showing a small bottle.

"So what do you wanna do now?" asked Max. Matt paused and considered for a minute. "I want to have something to eat that's not Pokechow and won't be stolen by Munchlax the second it's not in my range of vision," said Matt, his stomach growling to agree with his statement.

--

Meanwhile, at Team Rocket's lab, Dr. Vanya was doing a careful observation of the samples that the three Splitter scientists had been studying before. Dr Vanya was a 21 year old Asian with black hair. She did look quite lovely and it was difficult to know that, like her colleagues, she had a quadruple IQ points count. She slammed her fist down. "Dammit...I need a live sample!" she said before getting up. "I'm going out for a meal and some fresh air," she said to the guard.

"Yes ma'am," said the guard. Vanya paused and said, "My luggage has arrived, correct?" "It's all here," said the guard. "Good," said Vanya, "It's hard to eat out without civilian clothes."

--

Half an hour later, Vanya had wandered into Petalburg to try and find some food. In her opinion, the source of Team Rocket's lack of brains was the awful food their grunts ate.

She wasn't looking for anything fancy. She'd settle for fast food if she could find it. Heck, she'd even go for junk food if she wasn't careful about her hourglass figure.

She wandered into the first cafe and nearly ran into a guy wearing shades and for some reason, a NASA cap.

"Oh, pardon me," said the guy and then paused when he looked at her tight blue shirt with an alluring V-neck and the dull red skirt that went to her knees. Vanya smiled inwardly. It felt good to know she had persuasion over men, even this one who apparently was passing through from another world.

"Hi there. And who might you be?" the guy said.

"My name's Allisa," she said, "Allisa Vanya." She knew there was no remote possibility of him knowing her so she saw no reason to lie, especially to this handsome fellow.

"Matthew Lynch, but everyone calls me Matt," said the guy, extending his hand to shake. Allisa took it and grinned.

"So what brings you here?" asked Vanya. "A number of things," said Matt, "But on top of it all right now: lunch."

Vanya nodded, reaching for where her credit card was and swore. She'd left it back in the lab. Matt noticed this. "Hey, how bout I buy for us both?" he said.

A little later, Vanya was looking quizzically at Matt as he added several sauces to his burger.

"Ok...the final ingredient," said Matt, pulling out a flask full of purple liquid. As soon as he popped the cork, the paint above the bottle literally dissolved. "Kr-ta," said Matt, putting a drop on the sauce.

Vanya wrinkled her nose a bit as the scent drifted over. "A rather...strong combination," she said.

"It's good..." said Matt, took a bite, and fell sideways, out cold. Vanya jumped up in shock.

She gingerly picked up the bottle of kr-ta and looked at it. Wasn't this stuff supposed to be inedible to humans?

Matt jumped up. "Gotta kick to it," he said, hiccupping up a small fireball and stopping. That should not have happened.

--

Zine was going over the samples he had taken from Matt. There was still an amount of Pokemon DNA present, but the human portion was the greater majority. With a little more work, he'd be able to eliminate that last 15%.

His success with the virus cure had meant he had a little more freedom as long as he did not leave the ship. He was just saving his research to turn in for the night when he noticed he'd left one of the old samples running. He clicked it and stopped as the computer gave an update. "Caution. Immune system adapted...Condition deteriorating to 20% and rising," it chimed.

Zine did a double take and looked at the samples. The Pokemon DNA was starting to reassert itself. "Hmm, this is troubling," he said, "I wonder how the source is faring?"

He had taken the liberty of installing some tracking systems in his nanites, standard in case of a 'grey goo' situation. "Alert. Immune system has adapted. DNA reverting to pre-injection conditions." Zine gulped and wondered if he would have time to do his will if he started now.

--

Vanya stared at Matt. "Ok, one, how did you survive that? Kr-ta's the most powerful alcohol I know of. Second, was that a fireball?"

Matt gulped. "Dunno what you mean. I brought this from the last town. Must be an alternate," he said desperately. He looked down as he saw his nails lengthening and shoved his hand behind his back. "Look at the time. I gotta go...hope to see you again," he said and turned to run out the door, ducking into an alley.

Just then, his communicator rang. He clicked it on and said, "Hello?" "Matt, it's Chloe," said Chloe's voice, "Zine just told me that the treatment's wearing off." "Yeah, no kidding," said Matt as he felt his canines get sharper.

"Dammit...get your butt back here before someone sees you," said Chloe." "Matt?" Matt jumped as he heard Vanya's voice. "Uh, just answering my cell phone," said Matt. "Say Matt, if you're not busy later," said Vanya, "You want to have dinner together?" "Dinner, um," Matt ran his non-transformed hand through his hair as he thought. He paused when he felt a bony horn start to form. He quickly shoved his cap over his head.

Matt probably should have said 'no' right then and there, but the thought of Vanya's curvy body was too tempting for him. "Uh, sure," said Matt, "I'll call you when I've got an opening."

He couldn't believe he'd just said that but Vanya had gone now. Just in time too as his tail formed. A minute later, Chloe and Techo arrived to find a grumpy-looking Charmeleon Matt, almost buried under a NASA baseball cap.

"_Please tell me you can still understand me,_" moaned Matt. "You have any idea what he's saying?" asked Techo. "Whatever it was, it couldn't have been complimentary," said Chloe'

Matt glared and nodded, before pulling off the wrist computer that was more of a belt now and jumping up and down angrily on it. "Well, Zine did say that there was a margin of error," said Techo, "I didn't realize having a temporary effect would be in that margin."

"True, I'll explain how to tell the difference later," said Chloe, cracking her knuckles. Matt and Techo both exchanged a glance.

--

The next evening, Zine had been brought to the gym, having finally gotten his human form back, though he still had a few bruises from Chloe's 'explanation'.

"I did say that it wasn't perfect," said Zine as he rubbed his shoulder, "You can't expect it to work on the first try." He yelped and jumped behind Chloe as May and Max came in. "KEEP HER AWAY FROM ME!" he screamed.

Max looked rather annoyed at this. "Aw," he said, "All the fun stuff happens when I'm not around."

Zine stopped and walked over to Max. It was worth noting that Splitters, whatever form they used, had increased senses. "A natural Pokethrope, how interesting…" he said, forgetting his fear from pure scientific curiosity...till May hit him that was.

"NO ONE'S USING MY LITTLE BROTHER IN ANY EXPERIMENTS!" she shouted, in a disturbingly remarkable likeness of Chloe.

Zine gibbered, the shock having turned him back. He gibbered a bit in Splitter, sadly making it worse as 'Splitter' was simply growls and snarls.

"Cool!" said Max. However, May didn't have the same feeling and grabbed a nearby broom. "Mother!" squeaked Zine before it came down on him.

Eventually, Anderson and Techo had to pull it off her. "He's just concussed. All Splitters talk like that. GIVE ME THE BROOM!" said Techo, struggling to drag it out May's grip. Matt was watching with the rest of the Pokemon. "_Does May do this often?_" he asked.

"Mostly with Ghost Pokemon," said Max, "Of course, they can let it go right through them."

Zine finally managed to fix his translator implant. "PLEASE STOP IT!!!" he yelled.

Unfortunately, May was still in 'freak-out' mode and continued to whack Zine. Finally, in what may be considered self-defense, Zine zapped May with a lightning bolt. "Double cool!" said Max.

Zine got up, shimmering back into human form and smoothed his lab coat down. "Ok...now my agony is over, can I please examine Mr. Lynch?" he said.

Matt growled but allowed Zine to have a look at him. Zine pulled out a device and pulled Matt's mouth open to take some saliva as well as taking a blood sample, putting them into his own wrist computer.

Zine examined the readout and said, "Looks like a common case of immunity build-up. The treatment is essentially a virus, so Mr. Lynch's immune system is building a resistance to it each time it's administrated."

"How many doses will the cure still work for?" said Chloe. Zine shrugged. "About 2 or 3 more at my estimate. It is different for everyone," he said.

Matt groaned to himself. He'll only get to be humans at least two more times until a better cure is found. It was so frustrating, he barely got to feel like himself again.

Zine added, "Plus, it seems to have caused the virus to appear more in his saliva. I suggest you don't use the cure again," he said.

Chloe sighed and said, "I hate to say it, but he's right. We don't want Matt passing on his 'curse' to anyone else. We better lock up those tablets, in the gym's safe so Matt can't get to them."

Matt glared. He could have used the tablets one last time...then again...

--

"_Is this truly necessary?_" said Blaziken. "_Absolutely,_" said Matt, "_If I'm going to learn, what was it, Overheat I think, yeah, Overheat, if I'm going to learn Overheat I'll have to see done properly. And I'd need a more solid target than just a piece of wood._"

Blaziken didn't seem too convinced. "_And why does it have to be that safe?_" he said.

"_Well, it wouldn't really show that well on rocks, and this is the only metal I can think of that'd make a good target,_" said Matt.

Blaziken still didn't seem convinced but aimed an Overheat attack at the safe, the extreme heat practically evaporating the metal while leaving the inside. Matt rubbed his claws together. "_Thanks suck...I mean, Sir,_" said Matt before grabbing the bottle in both paws and running for it, cackling.

Blaziken scratched his head in confusion. "_Something tells me that I did something quite stupid,_" he said.

--

A few minutes later, Matt was outside where he had agreed to meet Vanya. To give him as much time as possible, he was leaving off taking the tablets till Vanya arrived. He had managed to get a sign together as a message, passing himself off as a messenger.

Of course, Matt had the extra prudence of picking out his clothing and putting it in a bag so he'd able to change into them when he was in human form.

Vanya wandered round the corner. "Oh, where is he?" she muttered before seeing a Charmeleon holding an envelope, being careful to keep its tail clear.

"Oh, how cute," said Vanya as she took the envelope, "Did Matt send you?" The Charmeleon nodded his head. "That's so sweet," she said and patted him on the head.

The note said 'Sorry. Got held up by...personal problems. Will be along shortly.' Vanya was confused at this and looked up to see the Charmeleon going into an alley. "Hey," she said and walked after it to see Matt, looking innocent and putting a bottle into his pocket. "Hi...got my message?" he said.

"Uh, yes," said Vanya, "Where'd that Charmeleon go?"

Matt pulled out a Pokeball. It was really empty but she wasn't to know that. "Most of my work takes me here so I thought it would make sense," he lied

Vanya shrugged and said, "Shall we?" Matt smiled and offered his hand. "Of course," he said.

Vanya took it and the two started walking down the street. "So tell me," said Vanya, "What kind of work do you do here?"

"Odd jobs. Stuff like that," said Matt. Vanya looked at him. "Oh...a mercenary, what company?"

"C.P.S.," said Matt, "You get a lot of travel miles working with them."

Vanya knew the name. The last transmission from Dr. Kurata had complained about C.P.S. Matt looked at her. "And what's your job?" he said.

"Oh, I do some genetic research," said Vanya, "I came here to study the unique DNA of Pokemon here."

"Oh? Sounds interesting. You should be careful. The NSC are a bit touchy about what you can do for research," Matt said.

"Indeed," said Vanya, "Of course, I'm not doing unorthodox liking cloning Super Pokemon or anything like that."

Both of them laughed before Vanya said, "Serious, I'm not."

--

What neither of them noticed was that a Hoothoot had been watching them both. It hooted and flew off in the direction of Petalburg Gym.

Max was looking at the burnt safe when Hoothoot flew back. "_Hey, Pokethrope, you won't believe what I saw,_" he said, landing on Max's head and peering at him upside down.

Skitty was taking one of her naps in a tree in the backyard at the moment. Suddenly, a loud female voice yelled "HE DID WHAT?!?" Skitty was startled out of her sleep and fell of the branch she was on. She fell to the ground and landed in a bush.

Max, May, and the mercs were backing up from Chloe. "HE TOOK THE TABLETS?" yelled Chloe, advancing on them.

Every Pokemon within earshot had run away from that room. Even the lazy Slaking made the arduous task of moving rather to be incinerated by Chloe's wrath.

"I'll kill him...I'll vaporize him…" said Chloe, no longer shouting, though her calm voice was somehow worse. She rounded on Max. "Ok...did your little bird say where he is?" she said.

Previously, Max couldn't believe that you could be bossed around by a younger sister. Chloe had completely demolished that belief. "He…was in town…with a girl," he said.

Chloe' gaze didn't change. "And where is he out with this girl?" she said. "He was downtown," said Max, "They were probably looking for a restaurant or something. Chloe, you're not going to do something... regretful, are you?" "No...I'll save that for when I drag Matt back here by his foot..." said Chloe.

--

Matt's love life was not a very prominent part of his psyche. Given a knife, he'd show you how many ways you could cause an irritating pain that could last many weeks. But given a ring, he wouldn't know what to do with it. So it's no surprise that his choice of restaurant wasn't high on the popular dating list.

It seemed to be the dimension's local variant of Pizza Hut. "So...where are you working?" said Matt.

"Um, I'm afraid the lab's a bit top secret," said Vanya, "The kind that you'd get hip-deep in trouble for telling where's the bathroom to a non-employee."

"Sounds top secret. You work for NSC command then?" said Matt, munching on a slice of pizza.

"No," said Vanya, "But if I told you, my bosses would probably prefer that you'd end up in the test subject facilities." "What was that?" said Matt.

Vanya back tracked quickly. "Oh, nothing," she said innocently. Matt decided to label it under 'odd' later. He didn't really want to spoil the night right now by asking dodgy questions. Such as, "Is it me, or is it getting hot in here?"

Vanya looked at the double pepperoni that Matt had ordered. "The pizza maybe?" she suggested. Matt shook his head. "No...it is rather hot," he said and picked an ice cube out before seeing it melt instantly. "Er, excuse me...need the loo," he said and shot off into the restroom.

Matt growled and said, "Of all the times for it to wear off. Can't I enjoy a complete meal while I have incisors and molars?" Said teeth were quickly becoming fangs as his face started to turn red.

Vanya however had decided to follow, genuinely concerned. "Matt? You ok in there? I did say double pepperoni was a bad idea," she said. "_Char_..I mean, I'm.._Char_..not very...well," said Matt.

Vanya suddenly became suspicious. "Why are saying 'char'?" she asked. "What? I'm.._Char_..not saying that. It's.._Char_..just.._Char_..a cough. I better.._Char_..before.._Char_..you.._Char_..get.._Char_..it," said Matt, coughing as much as he could to cover for it.

Vanya didn't seem convinced, turning on her wrist comp to scan. Her comp immediately detected that Matt wasn't 100% percent human and the foreign percentage was rising.

Vanya smirked. The records had stated that the escaped subject from the old lab had infected someone. Now she'd found it. "Oh, Maaatt...you never said you had an alien side."

"_Char?_ I mean what? Oh, _Char_..that, My great-grandmother was.._Char_..Splitter. It doesn't.._Char_..show well, but.._Char_..it's there."

Vanya wasn't convinced and pulled out a particle pistol before blasting the lock. "Oh, we need to be honest in this relationship," she said, opening the door.

Matt's face paled a bit as he felt himself starting to shrink. "Vanya.._Char_..it's complicate.._Char, Char_..it's not.._Char, Char, Char_..something I want to.._Char, char, Charmeleon!_" His ability to speak gave out completely as his mouth stretched out into a muzzle.

Vanya opened the cubicle he was in and aimed the pistol. "Oh...this is classic...you're the guy subject 12 bit?" she said.

Matt wasn't able to respond at the moment because his shirt had just engulfed his head. Vanya waited as the squirming bundle of clothing stop collapsing. A few seconds later, a Charmeleon's head popped out and looked at the aimed pistol. "_Um, how about I pay the bill? I'll even do the tip,_" he said, even though she could no longer understand him.

Vanya sighed. "Oh please...I'm a scientist, you can forward science," she said, pulling out a pure black Pokeball. "Like it? It works on Pokethropes...my own design. Shame my fellow doctors never used it for storage...mighta saved you some trouble," she said.

Matt backed up until he nearly doused his own tail in the toilet. "_Now, Allisa,_" he said, "_Maybe we can discuss this like fellow sentient beings, as soon as I've got a translator that is._"

Vanya sighed. "Don't worry, I'll let you go...eventually," she said and threw it at Matt.

A few seconds later, Vanya walked out, carrying the occupied Pokeball in her hand. "Shame I was cheated out of a cute guy," she said, "But at least I've got a perfect live specimen to work with."

She looked up to see two trainers, some people holding what looked like MK2 morphguns, and one of her ex-associates.

"Smeg it, I'm a scientist, not an adventurer," Zine was protesting, "I'm not the type to go gallivanting off on some silly..." He stopped when he spotted Vanya. "That woman looks very familiar," he said.

"Dr. Zine," said Vanya sweetly. A series of clicks and the glow of a Pokeball opening got her attention back. "Drop the Pokeball, creep...you know her?" said Chloe, aiming at Vanya.

"She was going to assist me and my colleagues on the Pokethropy project," said Zine, "Before I got press-ganged that is."

Chloe turned back to Vanya. "May? Meet the kinda scum we were chasing…not all monsters are Splitter," she said, ignoring Zine's 'hey'.

"I've met these type of people before," said May, "Mostly those who were working for Team Magma or Aqua. And we're definitely not going to let her get away."

Vanya smiled, pulled out her blaster and fired a shot into the restaurant, starting a few fires. "Hmm...looks like you already have a job to do..." she said.

Chloe swore in Splitter and was about to go and put out those fires when May said, "I've got this." She threw a Pokeball and called, "Squirtle, use Water Gun!" Squirtle came out of the Pokeball and started dousing the flames.

The mercs ran in and helped the people inside out into the air. However in the confusion, Vanya had slipped away. "I'll kill her...then I'll kill my brother," said Chloe.

"I'll find her," said Max. When no one else was looking, he shifted into Mightyena form. Using Odor Sleuth, he was able to pick up Vanya's scent.

--

Meanwhile, Matt shook the stars out his eyes to see himself on a table. "_Oh...that was nasty,_" he said. He looked around to see himself in some kind of lab. Realizing that he was going to be a test subject, he decided now would be a good time to leave.

He jumped up to leave. "_Ok. Exit stage left,_" he said and stopped when someone said, "_Oh...that's not easy._" Matt turned to look at a massive purple cobra-like Pokemon that was in a cage. Matt wasn't fully tuned in with his new senses yet, but he could tell something wasn't right about this one.

However, he did settle for what he had been planning to do anyhow. "_ARRRRGH! LEMMME OUTTA HERE!_" he screamed and ran as fast as he could...right into a clear glass wall.

The Arbok sighed to herself and said, "_Don't you think I've tried that. This glass can't be broken, not by Pokemon as strong as us._"

"_jammgfjieg,_" gibbered Matt, backing up. His eyes were rolled up into his head in fear.

The Arbok settled down into the bottom of her cage and said, "_May as well get used to it, no one's going to free us._"

"_Wh...who're you?_" said Matt, trying to keep as inedible as possible. "_The humans mostly call me Subject #24, but I'm also called Cleo._" "_My name's Matt. Captain Matt Lynch. Professional Mercenary and current lizard thing,_" said Matt.

Cleo looked at him and said, "_Oh, so you're one of the Pokethropes they've been trying to make._"

"_Aren't you?_" said Matt.

"_I was hatched as an Ekans,_" said Cleo, "_They've been giving me shots to see if they could make me a Pokethrope, but nothing apparently worked._"

Matt looked at her. "_Well...I was bitten by one of the test subjects. You really think a Pokemon would have a rank?_" he said, amused.

"_Not here, they won't,_" said Cleo, her tail lashing angrily, "_The humans here show no kindness or sympathy, even towards each other. All I want is to return to the wild._"

Matt sat down. "_I just want opposable thumbs back,_" said Matt before realizing something important. "_MY GOGGLES N GLOVES!_" he yelled.

Cleo flicked her tongue with disinterest. "_We Pokemon don't need to cover ourselves like humans. Besides, those things wouldn't be of much use right now._"

"_No....you dun get it...it stops me going psycho,_" said Matt, jumping on her and pulling them so they were nose to nose.

Cleo looked slightly alarmed. She remembered the Charmeleon that had been here, how violent it became after treatment. "_I could use Glare to keep you from attacking,_" she said.

"_Use what?"_ said Matt and went rigid when Cleo's hood flashed with light. "_Not...funny…_" he managed.

Cleo slithered away from Matt and said, "_It's only a temporary paralysis, but it looks like it may stop you if you're about to go savage._"

"_Just...warn me...next time…_" managed Matt. Vanya wandered into the room and peered in. "Mr. Lynch...and Cleo...how are we today?" she said.

"_Well, asides from the fact I can't move right now,_" said Matt, "_I think you're the worst date I've ever had. Most dates are supposed to end with a goodnight kiss or a hug, not a kidnapping._"

Vanya laughed at Matt's, to her, Pokemon gibberings. "Well...at least my dear had the sense to paralyze you. I found these in your pack," she said, holding up Matt's goggles and gloves. "...but as I wish to see if the variant you have can evolve, you shouldn't have Everstone."

Evolve? May had mentioned that if Max hadn't been caught with that special Moon Ball, he would have lost himself to the Mightyena he'd become. Matt was obviously a different case, but he didn't want to take chances. The shock was enough to make Glare wear off and allow him to hide behind Cleo. Vanya smiled. "Hmm...I'll be back later," she said

As soon as he was gone, Matt started to descend into panic mode. He didn't want to evolve into Charizard. He didn't want to become a winged dragon with a flame at the end of its tail and the ability to breathe powerful flames. His panic mode went on standby when he reflected how cool that would be.

A second bit said 'No more trigger finger,' and he broke down in tears. "_I WANT MY THUMBS BAAACK!_" he said, crying on Cleo who said, "_There, there?_" unsure what to say

--

Meanwhile, Max was still on Vanya's scent. The others followed him as he followed the trail she left.

"So...how bad is Team Rocket? If they're as bad as those idiots we met last time, we'll be in and out before the door finishes smashing," said Techo.

"Well, I mostly knew Jessie and James," said May, "But I get the feeling that there are other members that are more competent."

"Shouldn't be hard," muttered Chloe. "It's not the people I'm worried about," said May, "It's the Pokemon they may have. You know Pokemon are more than capable of handling a few human beings."

"Which is why we brought energy blasters," said Anderson.

"You're not going to hurt them, are you?" asked May, "I know their trainers are bad, but that doesn't mean they themselves are bad." "Stun rounds," said Anderson, "Perfect for troublesome critters."

May sighed with relief and said, "So how will we be able to find Matt when we get there?"

"Look for the explosions?" suggested Techo.

It was very fortunate that Max was able to follow a solid trail to where Vanya took Matt. However there were no grunts in sight.

"Huh, this'll be easier than stripping down a chicken," said Anderson. They were proved right as two people in the same type of combat armor as the gang walked into view, rifles slung so they could be easily used in a moment.

Techo watched as, just as the first two walked out of sight, another two walked into view the way the first two had come. "Ok...this won't be easy," he said.

Chloe frowned and said, "I thought there'd be something like this. We're going to have to be more careful."

"I think I know what to do here," whispered May. She released Beautifly from its Pokeball and told it, "Use Sleep Powder on them." "I didn't know Beautifly learned Sleep Powder," said Max, who was back in human form. "I taught it to him a while ago, I thought it may be useful."

The Butterfly Pokemon flew neatly over the new duo of mercs who yawned. The two slowly fell asleep. "Good work," said Chloe. The group then proceeded to sneak past the sleeping guards. Unfortunately, they were not aware that one of them was a light sleeper until he started stirring.

The merc suddenly got to his feet and aimed his rifle, grabbing May by the arm. "Ok, I don't know how you smegging well did that, but you're not doing it again," he said, his voice filtered through his helmet's mask.

"I suggest you let go before something unfortunate happens to you," said Chloe. "Oh, please. Take a shot and you'll most likely hit the kid," said the merc and folded up as May hit him over the head.

"Yeah, I saw that coming a mile away," said Techo.

Chloe took a pair of energy cuffs from the now semi-conscious merc and attached him to a ring in the fence. The door itself was unlocked.

"We better be prepared for any other guys like these who wouldn't be taken by surprise so easily," said Chloe.

The door opened into a sterile white corridor. Footsteps could be heard coming from a corner. "In here," said Chloe, opening one of the side doors.

May looked around at the lab equipment in the room. "What's all this stuff for?" she asked.

Techo picked up a hand-held device. "DNA sequencer MK 2," he said, putting it down and looking and what looked like a C.A.T. scanner. "Gene therapy unit...Model 5 I think...all Exo-Gene tech," he said.

"Uh, what's that?" asked May, who didn't understand a word of techno-babble.

"Can alter DNA...make nanotechnology...all this stuff is illegal," said Anderson.

"What would they be doing with this?" asked May. "What other reason is there?" said Zine, "They're trying to design their own Pokethrope soldiers, an army of monstrosities against the laws of nature.

Everyone thought for a second that Zine had said something honorable before Zine continued, "USING MY RESEARCH! The over-evolved monkeys didn't even have the courtesy to change the name on the research papers!"

That was when they all sweat-dropped. "Worry about your wounded pride later," said Chloe, "I want to find Matt before they decide to dissect him to see how a functioning Pokethrope works." "Oh, they won't dissect him," said Zine, "They'll want to keep him alive. They may even start a breeding program with him." Chloe glared. "Not a chance," she said icily.

--

Meanwhile, Matt had decided to pass the time by singing. Unfortunately, even by Pokemon standards, his singing was almost bad as Perish Song. This eventually caused Cleo to muffle him with a Bind attack.

"_Now, are you going to stop? You're setting my fangs on edge,_" she said. Matt nodded, slowly turning blue from the tightness of the Bind.

Cleo released Matt from her coils. Matt let in a big gasp of air as he winced at the soreness of his limbs. "_So much for any future as a snake charmer,_" he said to himself.

Cleo turned and bit the air an inch from his snout. "_Word of advice, that joke is not a good idea,_" she said.

"_So noted,_" said Matt, pretty sure that his heart had skipped at least two beats. Cleo coiled up to glare at him as Vanya walked into the lab area again.

"So, how are we feeling right now?" she asked. Matt would have said something nasty to her, but his Charmeleon tongue would just garble it into incomprehensible repetitions of his current specie's name. So he just went for the universal raspberry blowing.

Vanya laughed and pulled out a packet of Pokeblocks, throwing a few into the cage.

"_Oh, like I could be placated by some cheep- Ooh, this looks tasty,_" said Matt as he picked up a blue Pokeblock. "_Uh, I wouldn't eat that,_" said Cleo.

Matt looked round, his cheeks bulging. "_Ou ad oming?_" he said, his mouth stuffed full before making a funny face and keeling over.

Vanya laughed loudly and said, "I was hoping that he'd go for them. The look on his face was just priceless."

She put on some thick gloves and lifted Matt out, muzzling him just in case. He was put on the table in a way that would have reminded him of how the Pokemon that had landed him in this mess had been. "Ok, now then...the serum administered included the gene found in Pokemon that use stone evolutions, so should have added a Fire Stone trigger," she said into a recorder.

She reached into a drawer and pulled out a Fire Stone. She was about to use it on Matt when she remembered that Charizard were a lot larger than Charmeleon and Matt would harder to handle after that."

"Captain Dante. Please have some of your men come down to lab 12 in full restraint gear please," she said into an intercom."

Right away, doctor," said Dante. Vanya briefly considered what would happen if she let Dante know of who this Charmeleon was. She had heard of him talking about a 'Matt Lynch' before in a very non-favorable tone.

Matt had just come round and was glaring at her. "Oh please, who doesn't want to be able to fly and cook their own smores at the same time?" said Vanya, smirking.

"_You won't be saying that when I'm Thrashing you all over this lab,_" said Matt, "_I'm going to char every hair on your body and maybe a little bit of your skin. After that, I might drop you from a mile up, maybe into a lake._"

Vanya tapped a translator earpiece. "I like to listen to feedback from my subjects. You do realize you'll have no memory. I never fixed that...and for this moment I don't think I'll bother," said Vanya.

"_Whoa, whoa, back up,_" said Matt, "_I'm gonna lose all memories of being human? Total blank?"_

"Well...I can implant some suitable memories," said Vanya, her tone of voice making it sound like she was doing a favor.

"_I don't want any memory that's not my own,_" said Matt, "_Especially if it's like one of you being my trainer or something. Get me out of here!_"

"Oh no, I'll just do what I did with Cleo," said Vanya, "She was such a dedicated assistant till she got complacent with safety gear."

Matt glanced back at the Arbok and felt cold, which was rather ironic since he was a Fire Pokemon. "_You wouldn't,_" he said weakly, "_That's subverting a sentient being, a fellow human no less._"

"Yes...but what NSC Sector security doesn't know, can't hurt me," said Vanya. A click behind her made her grin. "You're late, let's get this done," she said, pulling out the stone and jumping as a laser knocked it flying. She turned and said, "Oh no, not you guys again," and ran for the alarm button.

Before anyone could stop her, she slammed her hand on the button. Immediately alarms started going off, which made Max and Matt wince due to their enhanced hearing.

Vanya jumped back and held up the stone. "One move and your dear friends memories are toast," she said, reaching unseen for her pulse pistol.

"_She isn't bluffing!_" called Matt, "_If that stone touches me, I evolve into a Charizard that has no memories of being human!_"

Everyone jumped as the mechanical voice of the translation sounded. "There...straight from the reptile's mouth," said Vanya., She continued. "Now why don't you drop those rifles and we'll all wait patiently for Captain Dante's security force?"

"Ugh, I can't believe I have to surrender to a plagiarist," muttered Zine, "Over a guy I don't even like." Vanya glared at him and said, "Watch your tongue, traitor." "Traitor? Ha! You don't see me working with someone else's research without their permission."

Vanya glared. "At least I don't need a holo-emitter to look human," she said. Zine snarled, "At least I don't set up my assistants to make good lad experiments!" Cleo looked up at this, having been only half listening.

"You're just jealous because I was able to pull it off successfully," said Vanya. "Jealous?!" shouted Zine, "You're ripping of my own work without so much a credit in payment!" "Well, who's going to believe a Splitter over a human?" said Vanya.

Zine roared, his hologram shutting down and lunged at Vanya, ignoring the pulse blast that went through his wing. He picked her up and threw her across the room into the line of glass containment cells. By coincidence, Vanya landed on Cleo's cage, which broke under him impact.

Vanya got up unsteadily to a sitting position and turned to see Cleo, reared up. "Cleo...don't be stupid," she said soothingly, her hand slowly slipping towards her pistol.

Cleo flared her hood to his full extent and hissed. "Oh, this should be good," said Chloe.

Vanya slowly slid back, hoping to reach her gun. "Please...you weren't human...don't be silly," she said, keeping the same kind voice going.

"_I know the tone in your voice when you joke,_" hissed Cleo, "_That wasn't a joke. I have a faint few memories of what I was before, but that's just enough. You stole my life from me. Now I'm going to take yours._" Before Vanya could move, Cleo lashed out and bit into her right shoulder.

Vanya yelled in pain and grabbed her bitten shoulder. "You ungrateful..." she began, grabbing her gun and it would have gone bad for Cleo had not Dante's response team burst in and created a healthy dose of chaos.

When Dante spotted Chloe, his confusion over the cause of the alarms subsided. He determined that finishing her off is more important than finding out how she got here and he started firing.

May, Dr. Zine, and Max ducked down as Chloe and the others began firing back. Dante ducked down near where Vanya was. "Dammit, doctor...this is how we lost your associates."

"I'm not surprised," said Vanya and she winced as her bite wound throbbed. Did Cleo include some of her poison into that bite? Or did she pass on her 'curse'?

She and Dante heard a clunk above then and saw Matt getting up. They'd taken cover under his restraint table.

Vanya noticed the Fire Stone on the floor nearby. "Well, may as well finish what I started," she said as she picked it up, "Besides a Charizard on our side would be useful right now."

Vanya picked up the stone and tossed into the air in front of Matt who grabbed it on reflex. Fortunately for Matt, he recognized the stone and threw it away almost as soon as he had grabbed it. Unfortunately, the brief contact he had with it allowed some of its strange radiation to seep into him. Matt gritted his teeth as he felt its power begin to build up. '_Everstone!'_ he thought, '_I need Everstone!_'

He staggered and tried to get to where he could see his goggles, managing to get to it just as he blacked out.

--

Chloe saw her brother keel over, grasping his goggles and shot a guard taking aim. "We have to get Matt out of here now!" she shouted.

More guards piled in behind the first team, firing as they did. Techo blasted two before a shot in front of him knocked him backwards. Vanya peered up to see Matt out cold. "Dammit...Captain, get that test subject and superglue the stone in place if you have to," she said.

"I'd be happy to oblige, but I can't get out there without being shot myself," said Dante, "It's a wonder he hasn't be shot yet."

"DO IT OR I'LL ADD YOU TO THE TEST ROSTER!" she yelled. Dante jumped back. Her canines looked alot sharper.

"Ok, ok, don't bite my head off," said Dante. He wasn't sure if the request could be taken literally or not.

Dante ducked out, only spotted by May as he grabbed Matt's arm in one hand and was about to shove the stone in his hand. That was when Matt woke up.

Matt immediately started squirming in Dante's grip. Dante was just barely able to hold on, but he couldn't get the Fire Stone to Matt without being scratched or bitten.

Finally Matt opened his eyes proper and Dante dropped him from sheer shock. Matt landed feet first and looked around before spotting a window and heading for it.

"Matt, wait!" called Chloe. But Matt had already leapt up and crashed through the window.

Dante looked at the hole. "NO!" he yelled and fired a few shots out the window, in pure fury before yelling at his men, "KILL EM ALL!"

With that, the weaponfire intensified. "I think that's our cue to mosey on out of here!" called Anderson.

"Yeah...we'll just ask em to let us by!" yelled Techo.

Chloe turned to May and asked, "May, does one of your Pokemon provide a smokescreen or something that'll let us escape?"

"I think so," said May, "I just hope it'll work." She released both Beautifly and Eevee. "Beautifly, use Morning Sun. Eevee, Dig us a way out of here."

Beautifly flew in front of Dante's men and let out a blinding flash of light, causing them to have to halt fire or hit something expensive. Eevee however made short work of the ground, digging a large hole under the wall. "Go, go!" yelled Techo, firing a few rounds into the air to add to the confusion.

By the time the light had faded, Chloe's team had gone down the rabbit hole, or Eevee hole as the case may be.

"Don't just stand there. Get them!" yelled Dante, his men running for exterior doors. Dante turned to help Vanya and jumped back in shock.

"What are you ssstaring at?" demanded Vanya, her forked tongue flipping out as she hissed the 's'. Her pupils had also changed to become slits.

"Erm...Ma'am," said Dante. There wasn't much else he could say that would not result in being yelled at.

Vanya glared at him and said, "I want to sssee my reflection."

Dante gulped. "I'm not so sure that's a good idea," he said in as neutral a voice he could manage.

"That isss an order," said Vanya, her voice as stern as can be. She was not aware of it, but she was baring the sharp fangs her canines had become.

Dante yelped and passed her a metal plate before running for the door.

Vanya stared at her snakelike face on the reflective metal's surface. She flung the plate aside and hissed, "Mark my wordsss, Matthew Lynch, I ssshall make you pay dearly for thisss. On thisss I ssswear."

**It looks like Matts in deep trouble now...and the gang have a new enemy..but what happened to matt? find out next time...**


	6. Chapter 6

First off, Pokemon and the related characters are property of Nintendo and not of me or cydra.

Exo-Gene and the related elements are a company I made up.

Finally…despite the name…this has no relationship to the pokemon episode of the same name

This is also an unofficial sequel to Cydra's Pokethropy Story, set a year after the events of that story. It is done with his permission.

Key:  
Human speech  
_translated pokemon speech_

**CPS Chronicles: Loose Ends**

**Chapter 6  
**

Matt stumbled through the woods by Petalburg City in confusion. He didn't know where he was or why he was here, just that he had to challenge the next Pokemon he saw.

He'd already knocked several luckless wild and trainer Pokemon into the middle of next week, but it wasn't enough. He needed more. He stopped his wandering as he caught the scent of another Pokemon. A newly released one.

He growled and made for the direction of the scent. There was something nagging familiar about this scent, but all he cared was the battle that was ahead.

The Charmeleon that was the source turned in shock as he jumped out in a battle stance, growling.

"_Matt? What are you doing here?_" she asked.

Matt snarled and aimed a slash at the Charmeleon, only to be grabbed round the wrist and flipped onto his back. "_Ooof,_" he managed, the wind knocked out of him.

"_Matt, what has gotten into you?_" said the Charmeleon. "_You...know me?_" asked Matt.

The rage went back down to a background simmer. "_Don't you remember me? It's me, Sizzle,_" said the Charmeleon, offering a paw to help him up. Matt just looked confused. "_I...I don't really remember...when did I meet you?_"

Sizzle gave him an odd look and said, "_Did your sister whack you on the head too hard?_" "_I have a sister?_" said Matt, sounding surprised.

"_I can't leave you out here in this state. Even with your condition, a good trainer might get lucky. Come on, I know where it's safe,_" said Sizzle

Matt wasn't sure to trust Sizzle or not, but he decided to follow her anyways. As they walked, Matt noted that Sizzle would make a good mate, but battling was higher on his priority list right now.

--

Meanwhile, Zine was not feeling well...or he wouldn't shortly. Chloe advanced on him angrily. "This is your fault, you overgrown reptile," she said angrily.

"Me? What do I have to do with this?" said Zine, not sure if that was the wisest question to ask.

"You and your stupid cure. There must have been a gas leak in the night for me to have agreed to have even considered trusting you," said Chloe.

"I was working on it under your orders," said Zine calmly, "You wanted to try it out even though I pointed out there was a slim margin of error. And I immediately suggested locking it up once learning it would allow him to be temporarily human and it increased his viral production. I don't think I can blamed directly for this."

Whatever he was going to say next was cut off as Chloe began strangling him. Techo said, "Why not use the tracers in his vaccine nanites?"

Chloe paused in mid-throttle. "Well, it'd certainly help us find him," she said. "Please...air..." managed Zine. Chloe pushed him to Anderson. "Lock him back up," she said. Chloe sighed and rubbed her forehead after Zine was taken away. "You might want to sit easy for a while," said Anderson, "You'll need your strength for when we round up Matt." Chloe nodded and said, "I should also conserve my strength for tanning his hide for sneaking out with that geneticist slut in the first place."

Techo decided to keep his mouth shut and run the scan. Chloe walked out the ship to see May and Max.

"Is there something you want right now? I'm rather busy at the moment," said Chloe. "We know," said May, "We came to see if we could help find Matt."

"Well...you don't happen to know where Matt might go?" said Chloe, rubbing her forehead.

"I think my dad mentioned a colony of Charmander evolutions living on the other side of the forest," said May, "That might be somewhere he'd go."

"Sounds simple," said Chloe before frowning, "...too simple...what's the catch?"

"Well, apparently there's one Charizard that's very strong and very protective of its colony. It won't allow anyone except Fire Pokemon to pass," said Max.

Chloe raised an eyebrow. "Dragon wannabe...I can handle him."

--

"We can handle one Charizard," said Butch. Dante had been ordered to take Butch and Cassidy with him to assess where Matt might have gone. "Does it include the ability to tell the difference between 291 Charmeleons" said Dante, smirking.

"Well, you said he'd be wearing gloves, right?" asked Cassidy.

"True, but given that Charizard and its buds won't let you peer at them all. What's the plan? None of my men'll go near...not after the trouble we had getting Dr. Zine that Charmeleon for their experiments," said Dante

"Well," said Cassidy, "I have my own Charizard. It'd be able to infiltrate the colony and find this Pokethrope."

"It's your skin," said Dante. "I'll be over there in the fireproof armor," he said and walked off.

--

Chloe, Techo, May, and Max found the Charmander colony at the base of a mountain on the other side of Petalburg Forest. "It shouldn't be too hard to sneak in," said Chloe. Suddenly, they all heard a loud roar that came from nearby.

The group all stopped and watched as a Charizard literally threw another one out. "Don't tell me...the boss? What did he say, Max?" said Techo, half gibbering with terror.

"It said 'Get out, traitor! Your trainer will not have any Pokemon under my protection!' And I only just got the last part," said Max.

"Hmm...ok...so I'm guessing now is a bad time to ask if anyone we know is home?" said Techo. Only someone so terrified could have such a calm tone.

"I don't think that Charizard would let you in even while under the best of moods," said May.

"Yeah...that's what in the mercenary business is called sarcasm," said Techo, still in the calm voice of the terminally terrified

Chloe rubbed her chin and said, "Ok, sneaking in as humans is out of the question. Sending May's Blaziken would get him the same reception as that other Charizard. Do we have any options left?"

"We could grab Lynch now, boss." said Abderson, pointing to two Charmeleons walking towards the colony, one wearing a pair of gloves. Chloe jumped up and ran forward. "MATT! IT'S ME! CHL...!" and was cut off by a surprisingly accurate Fire Blast from the Charizard. Techo winced. "Oooh...that'll leave a mark," he said weakly as Chloe twirled dizzily before falling over.

May pulled out a jar of burn salve. "I knew this would come in handy someday," she said, "I got this when I first got Torchic."

Techo wandered over, rifle in hand to where the other Charizard had landed and saw three familiar faces squashed under it. "Hi..." said Techo, switching his rifle to peacemaker mode. Dante sighed, "Oh no." Chloe came back to her senses at the explosion and the rapidly fading screams.

--

Vanya was not pleased to hear of Butch, Cassidy, and Dante's failure. She was even less pleased that they had landed on top of her.

"You idiotsss," she hissed. Her mutation had gotten worse. She now had purple scales starting to appear on her skin in various spots. Dante had gotten used to it by now but the two Team Rocket grunts weren't and, along with their Charizard, were trying to dig their way out the wall via their shoulder blades. "I don't care what the excusssesss are. I had a plan anyway in cassse," she said, before glaring at her own mouth. "Ssstupid tongue."

"What? Were you planning to snake- SNEAK, sneak into the colony?" said Dante quickly.

Vanya glared, something her mutated eyes were good at. "Oh...you can help however. I believe you remember how we gathered tessst sssubjectsss," she said, smirking. Dante gulped, "You wouldn't..."

--

When Zine heard what had happened and saw Chloe, he could not stop laughing. It was a great enjoyment to see someone else in pain for a change, particularly someone who had caused him a lot of grief.

"You must have some way for Blaziken to get in there, a spray, some nanites, anything," said Chloe. Zine leaned back on his cell bed. "No offence to Max and May...but smeg off, humans," he said, with some clear happiness in the tone.

"Excuse me?" growled Chloe before wincing from her burns. "Careful," said Zine cheekily, "You could lose some of that crispy flesh if you move too much."

"Grr...you're in no position to..." began Choe. Zine interrupted her. "Wrong, I have the right to not do anything to help you. The last time I helped on your orders, I was choked and ended up back in here. Why should I?" he said.

"I could just hand you over to the Combine," she threatened. "But then your brother would be stuck as a Charmeleon permanently," said Zine, "You can't carry out that threat. And torturing is not going to get you anything either."

Techo lifted a hand. "You could try the final resort...something I doubt you'd want to do to an Exo-Gene employee after the experience with Kurata." Chloe looked at him. "What's that?" Techo said, "Apologizing and asking civilly?"

"What? To him?" said Chloe incredulously, "Do you have any idea how it would like to the guys back home? Besides, he's a jerk. What should I do that for him?" "Because it's the only way to get Matt back," said Techo.

Zine's smile was now threatening to have the top of his head come off. "Oh...this is rich...let's hear it," he said.

Chloe made a face like she had 'Eude de Stunky' sprayed directly into her nostril. She gritted her teeth and said tensely, "I'm...sorry for beating you. Can...you...please...help...me?"

Zine smiled. "That wasn't so hard...was it? Now then, I do have something here," he said, activating his wrist computer. "Hmm...very good, I will need May's help though...and her Blaziken," he said.

"Why? What for?" asked May. Chloe, meanwhile, was washing her tongue off with soap.

"Well...that Charizard wasn't the first...unhappy camper we met when after subjects. We used a prototype serum to allow staff to observe in close quarters," Zine said, pulling out a vial of clear liquid. "Sadly, it needs fresh DNA to work...and you have the only Fire type."

"Wait a minute," said Techo, "I don't want to have to have two Pokethropes to deal with just to save one." "Fortunately, the serum only works for 4 hours," said Zine, "Which is why it is considered a prototype."

Techo and Anderson looked at each other. "Not a chance in any Z-class verse you care to name," they both said. Chloe said, "I'll do it." Zine shook his head. "No...not alone in any case. Teams always went in twos, in case of accidents," he said.

"Well, Blaziken is my Pokemon," said May, "I suppose I should go too. Besides, I always wondered what it was like to be a Pokemon."

"Very well...now we just need some fur..." said Zine.

A few seconds later, both Chloe and May were both holding small vials filled with a bright orange liquid. "Well, here's to Matt's safe return," said Chloe, holding her vial up in a mock toast. But as the two of them were downing the serum, Anderson voiced the one thing they forgot, "Say, aren't Blaziken too large to fit in your clothes?"

Chloe sighed. "Zine," she said. Zine smirked. "A little vengeance for all the bruises," he said, "Believe me, I don't find humans appealing at all."

"Have you ever had your neck wrung by a chicken?" she said before wincing as the serum started to take effect. Chloe winced as her fingers began to sharpen into bird-like talons and red fur began to appear at her elbow and spread.

May grimaced as her shoes stretched and then burst to reveal chicken-like feet. Her legs ballooned out as yellow feathers started to grow from them.

Zine sat back and took a few notes. He was a scientist after all. Chloe's and May's hair turned white-blond and began to grow as their faces pushed forward into red beaks, their eyes turning yellow.

Then their chests expanded slightly and their shirts tore. Fortunately, the feathers had grown to cover their breasts by then. A few seconds later and a pair of female Blaziken were left standing in the tattered remains of May and Chloe's clothes.

Techo peered in. "Is it safe?" he said. Chloe glared when she spotted he was wearing one of the helmets from the firefighting gear.

May looked down at her ruined clothes and sighed, "I _wish I had remembered to take these off before._" "_And transform nude in front of these creeps?_" said Chloe. Both of them paused when they both realized what they said came out as parts of the word 'Blaziken'.

Zine smirked but Techo had gotten the tones of words. "HEY!" he said and received two fireballs in the face. "Owie," he said. Anderson stepped over him. "Y'all feelin' ok?" he said. Zine said, "They are perfectly fine. It worked perfectly."

Techo got up. "So, they just stroll in, drag Matt out by his tail, and bash him against a rock until his brains working again," he said

Chloe cracked her knuckles and said, "_My thoughts exactly._" She jumped as flames spurted out of her wrists.

--

Meanwhile, Matt was being shown around where Sizzle had been hanging out. "_So...I helped you get free?_" he asked

"_That's right,_" said Sizzle, "_After that, I headed out to this colony. The leader was more than okay to let me in. Apparently, he once had a not-so-nice master too._"

Matt shrugged. "_So...you met my trainer. What was she like?_" he asked. Sizzle laughed. "_Your memory really is fried,_" she said.

Matt shrugged and said, "_Can't remember a thing. I could only remember my name after you said it._"

Matt looked at Sizzle and smiled. "_Thanks for helping me. What was going on when we arrived? I suppose the guy doing the throwing was the boss,_" he said. He noticed he hadn't let go of Sizzle's paw yet.

"_Apparently he belonged to a Pokemon trainer,_" said Sizzle, "_That would have been ok if it weren't for the fact that he was apparently after one of the Charmeleon here._"

"_Oh?_" said Matt. He couldn't stop thinking about Sizzle. Part of his brain was trying to get his attention, saying that the intruder meant something important.

"_Yes, if I recall, the Charizard belonged to a member of Team Rocket,_" said Sizzle, "_What was her name? Casey? Chastity?_"

"_Cassidy?_" said Matt, a little confused. She did have beautiful eyes.

"_Yeah, that was it!_" said Sizzle as she looked Matt directly in the face, "_How did you know that?_"

"_Maybe...I ran into them...briefly,_" said Matt, looking back at her. "_You got lovely eyes, you know that?_" he said before his brain finally decided to leave him to it.

"_Oh, you really think so?_" asked Sizzle, her blush practically indistinguishable from her red skin. Matt gulped a bit. "_Erm...yes..._" he said. His deserting brain was now laughing at him. "_Anything else you like?_" she asked, a seductive tone entering her voice. Matt gulped a bit. "_ngedd?_" he managed.

Sizzle giggled and nuzzled Matt's neck. "_You look really cute when you're baffled,_" she said.

Matt smiled a bit "_ffzzl?_" he managed before nuzzling her back.

--

Outside, any local would have found it strange that two armed soldiers and a dragon thing in a lab coat were talking to three Blaziken. "Ok, Zine says this translator'll work on these comms...try and stay in contact. Zine has two booster shots," said Techo. Zine nodded, "I would prefer not to use them. Anymore risks it being permanent."

"_Ok, but where are we going to hide them?_" asked Chloe, "_Blaziken don't have natural pockets._"

Techo grabbed her and stuffed a tiny earpiece in her ear. "There...and we have a dart rifle...just get outside if it starts to wear off," he said.

"_Ok,_" said May, "_but what if we're getting too much attention? Like from someone who wants to fight or an attracted suitor?_" "_I'm sure Blaziken get us out of trouble then, right Blaziken? Blaziken?_" Blaziken had been staring at May for the last few seconds. He shook his and looked at Chloe, "_I'm sorry, did you say something?_"

Chloe glared and punched him. Techo and Anderson winced as he went over like a tree. _"Watch it, birdbrain,"_ she said.

"Try to keep your minds on your work," said Anderson, "I don't want to have end rescuing more critters than we sent after the strays."

May and Chloe's expressions went solid as their imaginations went to work. _"Let's get this done..."_ said Chloe slowly, kicking May's Blaziken awake.

--

A little while later, the three Blaziken were making their way to the Pokemon colony.

"_Ok, so we just go in, find the Charmeleon with gloves n goggles and drag him out, nice and simple,_" said May. Chloe said, "_Don't say that. It's tempting fate. Any clues how to act, Blaze?_" the name 'Blaze' referring to May's Pokemon.

"_Well, we Blaziken are supposed to very experienced since we're fully evolved,_" said Blaze, "_So don't do anything that'd show your inexperience._"

"_I know how to twist someone's arms behind their head and tie them in a knot_," said Chloe, conversationally.

Blaze considered that for a moment and said, "_That'd work. But what you should really do is try to conceal any surprise you feel and don't leap to any conclusions on what you're seeing._"

"_I can do that, believe me, after Mystery Meat Day back at HQ nothing surprises you. It's the only meal you need to beat into submission,_" said Chloe.

"_I'm still feeling very nervous,_" said May. Chloe put her hand on May's shoulder and said, "_Don't worry. Consider yourself as my little sister in this scenario. And as such anyone who tries to make a move at you will get my foot in their chest._"

Blaze nodded. "_And I won't let anyone get you either,_" he said. Several Charmeleon and Charmander looked at them as they walked into the colony.

Unfortunately, May wasn't able to convincingly cover her nervousness. "_Don't mind her,_" said Blaze to the Charmander and Charmeleon, "_She's just evolved and she's still getting used to her new form._"

Chloe nodded. "_Yeah..._" she said, "_Let's find Matt fast. It took us a while to get here in the first place...and I really do not wanna know what effects an overdose of this stuff of Zine's will do._"

--

Dante glared at Butch and Cassidy. He had also been given one of the serums by Vanya, but unfortunately, only one Fire Pokemon had been at Team Rocket H.Q. "_Not...a word_," he said, though it came out as '_Monferno_'.

"You know, I did keep saying I wanted this monkey off my back," said Butch smugly. "Well I certainly hope he doesn't 'monkey' around with those Charmeleon."

Dante glared and leapt on Butch's face, bashing him repeatedly on the head. "YAH...FACEHUGGER POKEMON...GETTIM OFF!" yelled Butch

"Will you two sssimiansss knock it off?" hissed Vanya.

The three jumped as Vanya's voice came from their radio. "Jussst...get it done...and make sssure to catch the Pokemon he wasss following...for tesssting," she hissed.

"We'll be on them like fleas on a chimp," said Cassidy, prompting Dante to hop on Cassidy's back and started beating the back of her head.

--

Meanwhile, Matt and Sizzle were still cuddling each other. It probably would have gotten a lot more intimate if a part of Matt's brain wasn't holding back his last inhibition, though the metaphorical rope was fraying.

Matt said after a minute, "_I wish I could remember what was missing. What'll I do if my memories don't come back?_"

"_I'm certain they'll come back,_" said Sizzle, "_The Charmeleon that freed me from my trainer would be able to come back around from this._"

Matt nodded and nuzzled her again. "_I suppose I'm here for the short run at least,_" he said, taking the gloves and goggles off.

"_Uh, you sure you want to do that?_" asked Sizzle. "_Oh come on,_" said Matt, "_I'm not going to fly off the handle by taking them off for a few minutes._"

Matt looked out at the Charizard who led the colony. Something about him seemed familiar. He was talking to three Blaziken. "_I'm not so sure. I haven't seen any Pokemon with clothing on,_" he said.

Chloe also felt that she recognized the Charizard, but she couldn't say anything without revealing who she was. "_Well, have any new Charmeleon arrived here?_" she asked.

"_One arrived with Sizzle. I didn't get a good look at him. I was throwing out a trained Pokemon. I won't have them here,_" said the Charizard.

Blaze shifted nervously and said, "_You seem rather upset regarding human domestication._"

"_I was locked up for a year by some of them. I escaped when some of them fought a week ago. I evolved the next day,_" said Charizard.

Chloe remembered seeing a Charmeleon escape his captors, but again she couldn't bring it up without looking suspicious. However, she did know Sizzle. "_Well, we'll go find this 'Sizzle' and see if she's seen the Charmeleon we're looking for._" May looked confused and asked, "_How will we know her?_"

Charizard pointed to a cave. "_It's that one. You're guests here but if you cause trouble I'll give you the same treatment as that trained Pokemon,_" he said.

"_We'll keep that in mind,_" said May, practically shaking with nervousness.

The trio walked to the cave, not noticing the Monferno peering out. "_This is demeaning,_" muttered Dante, moving to another cover behind the three Blaziken. "_I know there aren't that many kinds of Fire Pokemon,_" muttered Dante, "_But couldn't have they given me a more respectable-looking one? A Flareon, a Rapidash, I'd even settle for Magmar. But no, I end up a monkey._"

A Charmeleon had been listening to him confused. "Maybe _because you talk to yourself?_" he said.

Dante counted to ten to control his temper. When that failed, he hit the Charmeleon with a Mach Punch, knocking him out. "_Now to find the Charmeleon brat that matters,_" he said to himself.

The Charmeleon gibbered. "_That's nice...good luck with that, mummy,_" he said before fainting.

--

Meanwhile, Chloe, May, and Blaze had found the cave where Sizzle was living in. "_Hello?_" called Chloe, "_Anybody home?_"

Chloe wandered in when there was no answer and found Matt's Everstone gear. "_Oh no...I'll kill him,_" she said and got a shock as Sizzle dropped onto her back and started clawing her. "_I dunno who you are but you just made a big mistake,_" Sizzle said.

"_Hey! Ow! Quit it! Get off!_" shouted Chloe. May might have tried to stop Sizzle, but she looked too angry to try and stop. Besides, the way Chloe was dancing right now was kinda funny.

"_It's me, Chloe...get off, Sizzle,_" said Chloe, finally grabbing the angry Pokemon and holding her in front at eye level.

The angry look on Sizzle's face vanished."_Chloe?_" she said, "_I didn't recognize you. Since when did you become a Were-Blaziken?_"

"No_...we just had some...help. We're here to get my brother. Is he ok?_" said Chloe, realizing she was holding a Charmeleon like it was nothing and putting Sizzle down. "_Wow...tough,_" she muttered.

"_Um, yeah, he's here,_" said Sizzle, "_But he isn't quite himself right now._"

"_What's wrong with him?_" said Chloe, a little angrily. Her hands bunched into fire-covered fists.

"_Nothing really,_" said Sizzle, "_He just seems to have lost his memory._"

"_The Fire Stone must have done it,_" said May. Sizzle jumped. "_You brought a trainer too?_" she said.

"_Relax, we just want to take Matt out of here before he does something really stupid,_" said Chloe. She glared at Sizzle and said in an accusing voice, "_He hasn't done anything stupid, right?_"

"_No, he was quite the gentlemon,_" said Sizzle, "_He wandered off to have a look around. I don't think he remembers being human._"

"_Good,_" said Chloe, "_I do not want to have deal with the stress of being an aunt._" "_Then you probably wouldn't like how your friend's been staring at you two,_" said Sizzle.

Blaze jumped back as both his trainer and Chloe span and glared. "_Erm..._" he managed.

--

Matt came back to see two female Blaziken beating up a male Blaziken. "_Did something funny happen when I was gone?_" he asked.

Matt started as one of the females jumped up. "_MATT! I was so worried!_" she said, hugging him so hard he feared his spine was fusing into a solid lump. "_Can't...breathe...lady..._" he wheezed.

"_Oh, sorry,_" said Chloe, as she put Matt down, "_Still not used to this Fighting strength._" "_Um, who are you?_" asked Matt. "_I'm your sister, Chloe._"

Matt looked confused. "_What? Was I adopted?_" he said.

Chloe sighed and mentally reminded herself that this wasn't going to be easy in the first place. "_No,_" she said, "_The truth is we're both humans. You just caught Pokethropy and then lost your memory. And then I add to take a temporary version of Pokethropy to try and find you._"

Matt raised an eyebrow. "_Please, I'm sure I'd remember,_" he said.

Chloe tapped the side of her beak as she tried to think of something that would convince Matt she was telling the truth. But then May said, "_Um, Chloe, your feathers..._" "_What about them?_" asked Chloe. She glanced down to see that the feathers were starting to fall off her torso.

"_Uh oh,_" said Chloe before Blaze said nervously, "_Boss?_" pointing to where May's leg feathers were also falling off.

"_Oh no, oh no,_" said May as she clutched her shrinking talons to her chest, "_I do not want to change back now, not here._"

"_Outside, quick,_" said Chloe. May began to object till Chloe and Blaze, who realized why Chloe had said that, dragged her out.

--

Zine was shocked out of his snooze when his wrist comp burst into life, translating several Blaziken squawks into '_WAKE UP!!!!_"

Zine started upwards and looked around in confusion. Realizing where the voice had come from, he put a pair of binoculars to his eyes and looked towards the Charmander colony. He spotted Chloe and May in a fortunately sheltered area out of the sight of the other Pokemon. Which was a good thing too since they had already gotten their own hair back and were rapidly molting.

They had been waving their arms to get his attention until their lack of coverage forced them to use their arms to preserve their modesty. Zine grinned and said, "Hey fellas, check this out." He had already used the built-in camera in the binoculars to snap a couple of photos for future blackmail.

Techo and Anderson decided not to, blessed with a sense of self-preservation. Techo pulled out the rifle. "You nutter, you didn't separate the booster shots. These are double doses," he said.

"Well, given the circumstances, I think become a permanent Pokemon is better than being permanent charcoal," said Zine, "Besides, the permanence is only a theory. It may not last forever."

Techo nodded. Zine had a good point. He loaded and took aim at Chloe. Sadly, he messed up and the dart shot wide. However, it ricocheted off a rock, a tree, another rock, Dante's forehead, and hit Chloe in the butt. Techo winced at the threats that came over the comm as Anderson took over for the second shot.

Anderson felt his face heat up when he looked at the almost-nude May through his sniper lense. "Um, this is really awkward," he said. "Just shoot her in the shoulder already," said Techo.

Anderson seemed about to take the shot with his eyes closed till Zine swore in Splitter and snatched the rifle off him. "Oh, for Ancients' sake..." he said and took a professional shot into May's arm. He noticed the two mercs shocked looks. "What? My family owned a hunting colony."

--

Matt wasn't sure what to think. He had watched the two Blaziken females molt their feathers and become female humans. Their heads definitely stroked his memory a little. The younger one's naked body made him feel a little funny inside while the older one, for some reason, made him think of rather painful things.

Suddenly two darts hit them and they quickly became Pokemon again. His apparent sister yelled something about if she ended up stuck she'd roast someone called Zine while the one called May seemed extremely worried.

"_Don't worry, Boss,_" said Blaze, "_It's not so bad being a Blaziken. You can focus on training all day. And I'm sure there are plenty of males who...oh, wait..._"

Matt and Sizzle jumped as May delivered a nasty Sky Uppercut that actually sent Blaze several feet into the air. "_Ouch,_" said Sizzle, "_She definitely earns her Fighting Type._"

Matt walked over and looked down at the semi-conscious Blaze. "_You know, you really ought to think about how people react before you say anything,_" said Matt.

Blaze gibbered a little, his eyes spinning. Nobody noticed Dante peering out from cover. "_So it is Matt's sis and that trainer from the lab,_" he muttered. "_Wonder what that Charizard would make of this info._"

Then Chloe rounded on Matt and said, "_If you ever tell anyone you saw me naked, I'll...I'll...I'll skin you alive and use your hide for a, a new purse._"

Matt gulped. "_Yes Sir...I MEAN ma'am,_" he said.

In any case, the fact that Chloe and May were human, or at least originally human, was proven. Matt was still having a little trouble grasping the rest of what Chloe said.

"_So...let me get this straight...some Charmeleon bit me...and I turned into this,_" he said, "_I'm really a mercenary from somewhere called Nullspace sent with you to catch some insane scientists._"

"_That's it in a nutshell,_" said May. "_So how'd I lose my memory?_" asked Matt.

"_You were captured by one of the scientists after you went on a date with her. She altered you to be vulnerable to Fire Stone evolution and she gave you one...wait a sec...THAT WAS ALL YOUR FAULT!_" she said and aimed a Mega Punch at Matt.

Matt had only time to squeak "Uh-oh!" before if felt like a sledgehammer fell upon his head. As Matt was staggering around with a group of mini-Torchic flocking around his head, Chloe gripped her throbbing hand and hissed in pain. "_Holy smeg, did you have your skull plate reinforced or something?_" she asked.

"_I'm a little Torchic, short and stout,_" gibbered Matt before falling over. Blaze and Sizzle looked at Matt. "_He must have been fighting before I found him. He's up a few levels, probably close to evolution,_" she said. Matt smiled faintly. "_That's nice..._" he gibbered.

--

Meanwhile, Dante was making his way towards the leader Charizard. Normally, he'd stay far away from him, but seeing Lynch's sister get pummeled was too good a spectacle to pass up.

"_Hey...boss mon...did you know some trainer Pokemon and a Pokethrope are in your little town?_" he said.

Charizard looked down at Dante with a stern glare. "_What did you say?_" he demanded. "_Yeah, a little wench from Petalburg's sneaked in as a Blaziken with her real Blaziken and they're going to nab one of your Charmeleon,_" said Dante with a fiendish grin on his Monferno face.

Charizard's eyes turned the same red that Matt's went in Pokethrope rage. "_WHERE ARE THEY?_" he roared.

"_Oh, I can lead you to them if you want me too,_" said Dante, who was inwardly thinking '_Oh, if only I had brought a camera_'.

--

Meanwhile, Matt had come round and was miserable. "_So now you might be stuck too?_" he said. He still wasn't sure what to believe. The blow had unlocked a whole new set of memories without removing the false ones and now he was confused.

"_It looks like we might,_" said Chloe, "_But at least, we're together again. Besides, I don't think I'd want to have that Charizard finding out who we really are._"

Matt nodded and the group sweatdropped as a roar echoed out.

"_That doesn't sound good,_" said Blaze and they all scattered as a Flamethrower roasted the spot where they were standing, leaving the rocks red hot.

The Charizard landed and glared. "_Come to take Pokemon away, have you?_" he said, aiming a slash at May, only for blaze to take the hit

As May looked to make sure that Blaze was alright, Chloe tried to talk down Charizard. "_Now, take it easy,_" she said, "_I can explain everything..._"

Charizard didn't seem in the mood to listen. "_No, I won't let you take any other Pokemon to where you took me. You'll die first._"

"_But you don't understand..._" started Chloe before Charizard knocked her back with a Wing Attack.

Matt ran forward. "_Stop it! They came to see me,_" he said, running in front of his sister.

"_Stay out of this,_" snapped Charizard, "_This is for your own good._" He smacked Matt back with a flick of his tail.

Matt fell back. "_Dammit...you're worse than that jerk who bit me,_" he said, jumping back up.

At that instant, Matt realized where he had seen this Charizard before. He may have evolved, but his scent was still the same.

"_YOU...YOU DID THIS TO ME, YOU JERK!_" he yelled and lunged at the larger Pokemon.

The Charizard barely had turned around before Matt was on his back, clawing and biting as much as he could. Of course, Charizard was stronger than Matt so it was easy for him to throw him off.

The Charizard turned. "_Wait...I remember you...the idiot with the raygun,_" he said, sneering. "_I AM NOT AN IDIOT!_" yelled Matt and charged the larger Pokemon again.

Charizard just blinked and put one foot up against Matt's forehead to keep him from getting any closer.

Matt settled for grabbing the foot and biting it as hard as he could. Charizard did notice this, it was the sort of thing guaranteed to get attention.

Charizard started shaking his foot until Matt flew off. "_This must be really embarrassing for you,_" said Charizard.

"_YOU RUINED MY LIFE! WE WERE THERE TO ARREST THOSE GUYS!_" yelled Matt, getting back up. His eyes were almost as red as the Charizard's.

Charizard laughed and said, "_You must be a pretty unlucky guy._"

Matt's eyes went pure red and he lunged at Charizard in a pure rage attack. "_STOP LAUGHING AT ME!_" he practically screamed.

This time, Charizard responded with Metal Claw and sent Matt flying back into a boulder. "_You're out of your league,_" he said, "_If you couldn't handle me as a Charmeleon and you as a human, how can you hope to win now?_"

He was about to send a Fire Blast into the boulder when Chloe sent a Mega Kick into the Pokemon's back, sending the blast wide.

Said Fire Blast happened to hit the spot where Dante had been watching.

Dante sighed, thanking his stars that he'd been given a Fire Type after all, wiping the soot away from his mouth. Charizard turned to face Chloe as May tried a Comet Punch at him.

Charizard caught May and used Vital Throw to throw her into Chloe.

"_That Monferno was right to point out who you were,_" said Charizard, "_Now I'm going to use you as an example of the consequences of messing with my colony are._" He opened his mouth wide as he prepared to launch a Dragon Rage attack.

Matt pulled himself back over the boulder weakly and spotted what the Charizard was going to do. "_NO!_" he yelled.

Suddenly, there was a blinding flash of light as Matt's form was covered with white light. As they watched, it grew much larger and wings came out of the back. When the light had faded, Matt was now a Charizard as big as the other one.

Dante, still watching from cover, gulped. The Charizard however turned at the glow. "_You're not hurting them, you sorry excuse for a firestarter!_" said Matt.

"_And what are you going to do about it?_" said Charizard. "_This!_" shouted Matt and he swung his tail in a powerful Iron Tail attack.

The Charizard was knocked over from the attack but got up almost as fast as he'd fallen. "_Oh...It seems the human wants to play,_" he snarled.

"_You know, I felt sorry when I heard what they experimenting with you back in that lab,_" said Matt, "_But now I see you're just a big bully that's been pushing his opinions on everyone else._"

The Charizard glared. "_Your people dragged me from this very colony as a Charmander,_" he retorted and sent a Slash at Matt, who countered with his own.

"_They weren't my people,_" said Matt as he hit Charizard with Dragon Rush, "_You can't expect every human to act alike._"

"_You're all the same...all of you_!" roared the Charizard, bringing both fists down on Matt's back as he tried to pull away

"_You don't know squat about humans,_" said Matt before he used Fire Spin.

The Charizard was knocked over but it was clear the two evolved Pokethropes were even.

Dante had been watching with interest. "_Hmm, dragging Matt out of here won't be that easy. It's a good thing that I've got a Plan B._"

He got a fireball and threw it into the air. Given Vanya had not given the two grunts a translator it would have to do for a signal.

"Alright, there's the signal," said Cassidy. "Had a feeling we'd be needing this," said Butch. The two of them climbed into a giant robotic Magmar mecha and started piloting it towards where the Charizard were fighting.

Chloe was watching the fight with boredom. "_Boys...you could cut the testosterone with my ion blade,_" she muttered.

"_Yeah, this isn't accomplishing anything,_" said Sizzle.

A thump got their attention. "_Ok...what was that?_" said Chloe. May spotted it first. "_Oh, great...as if we didn't have enough,_" she muttered.

Chloe spotted the Magmar mecha with the big R on the stomach. She stared at it and said, "_You have got to be kidding me._"

Blaze sighed. "_Oh great...not another one,_" he muttered. He looked over at the two Charizard, who were too intent on fighting each other to notice the new threat. "_Looks like it's up to us...hey...didn't that Pokethrope say a Monferno ratted us out?_" he said, seeing Dante, who was struggling to do his own booster shot.

"_Hmm, I spy a monkey, but I'm smelling a rat,_" said Chloe.

Sizzle smirked. "_Hey, Miss May? Would you like the first shot? If your form's permanent, you may as well learn how we Fire Pokemon do stress relief._"

May grinned and said, "_I always wanted to try something like this._"

--

Dante swore as he dropped his booster shot. "_Dammit...useless things,_" he muttered, chasing it until it knocked against a pair of Pokemon feet. He picked it up and then realized what feet they were. "_Oh no,_" he said, following the gaze up to see three Blaziken.

"_Um, hi there,_" said Dante, desperately hoping they couldn't recognize him, "_Those two Charizard are really tearing it up, aren't they?_"

One of the Blaziken looked at the middle one. "_Boss? You make sure to not put all your weight behind the kick, otherwise the Mega Kick goes wide._"

"_Now wait a second,_" said Dante as he backed up, "_There's no reason to do anything violent. I haven't done anything to you._"

"_Dante...Captain, is it now? Was that a mistake at admin dept?_" said one of the other Blaziken in Chloe's voice. Dante gulped. "_Miss Lynch...trying a new look?_" he said, trying a friendly tone.

"_It's quite temporary, I assure you,_" said Chloe, "_If a certain Splitter knows what's good for him that is._"

Dante backed up and saw the mecha. "_Wow...don't see that every day,_" he said, in a worried voice. A second later, May delivered an impressive Mega Kick that sent Dante into the sky and into the windscreen of the mecha with a distant 'oof'.

"Say, is that Dante?" asked Butch. The Monferno slid down the windscreen with a long squeak.

--

Blaze was looking at May and was thinking, '_You know, boss looked pretty hot when she punted Dante like that..._' Then he realized what he said and thought, '_NO! BAD BRAIN! PINK DONPHANS, PINK DONPHANS!!_'

Chloe however patted May on the shoulder. "_Nice...if you ever find yourself in Nullspace, you could make it as a merc,_" she said before looking over as the mecha turned on its comm. Blaze sighed. "_Here we go,_" he muttered.

Matt and Charizard paused in their fight when they heard a familiar pair of voices say, "To inflict the world with devastation." "To blight all people in every nation."

Matt put a paw over his eyes. "_Oh, great...an idiot convention._"

"_You brought those humans here?_" shouted Charizard before smacking Matt back. "_Believe me, I wouldn't want them here any more than you do,_" said Matt.

Dante had managed to get into the mecha, changing back due to no booster...and luckily for this fic, he'd also found a spare grunt uniform. "RIGHT! SQUASH THOSE BLAZIKEN! NOW!" he yelled.

"But what about the Charizard?" asked Cassidy.

"Catch the one on the left...kill the other one...that other ones been a pain in my butt as long as I knew it." said Dante, pulling Cassidy so they were nose to nose and so Cassidy got a good look to see exactly how insane Dante's look currently was.

"Um, right away, sir," said Cassidy.

Matt pushed Charizard away from him just in time as a large fireball shot from the Mecha nearly blew them apart.

"_We're gonna have to settle our differences later,_" said Matt, "_I think stopping that big robot from blowing this colony to bits is more important._"

Charizard nodded in reluctance before turning to face the mecha. "_This isn't over,_" he snarled.

"_Never said it was,_" said Matt, "_I intend to hand your tail to you later._"

Charizard spread his wings and took to the sky, Matt following unsteadily behind him.

Matt was naturally unsteady in the air from the start. He was normally used to flying inside a fighter of some kind. The one time he had been able to fly on his own was when he had combined with his Digimon partner, and that didn't involve flapping wings that were naturally growing from his back.

Inside the mecha, Dante spotted Matt immediately. "THAT ONE...FIRE!" he said, getting in the way.

"Sir, I can't see the target," said Butch as he tried to look around Dante.

"I didn't ask for your help, now shoot em!" Dante yelled.

Butch tried to comply, but without a proper visual, the blasts from the mecha kept missing, badly.

Matt managed to land on the mecha and pull a gun off.

Then the Magmar head of the mecha turned and breathed fire at Matt. Of course, being a Charizard, Matt was hardly hurt.

It still made him cough out of habit. "_Dammit...who's the nut at the controls?_" he said.

Meanwhile, the other Charizard was trying to strafe the mecha with bursts of fire, but the mecha was purposefully designed withstand great heat and wasn't affected.

Chloe looked at May and Blaze. "_I wonder what would happen if those load-bearing hydraulics got damaged?_" she said conversationally.

"_Uh, I don't know, what would happen?_" asked May, who wasn't very tech-savvy.

"_Timber,_" said Chloe lightly, moving her hand down before making a 'craassshhh' sound.

"_Great,_" said Sizzle, "_Um, where are the load-bearing hydraulics?_"

"_The heel..._" said Chloe.

"_Oh, now I've got you,_" said Blaze nodding.

Blaze leapt forward first and dealt a Fire Punch to the mecha's left ankle, denting it.

The mecha stumbled forward and just barely kept itself from falling down.

Charizard and Matt flew into it in a double Fly attack, making it stagger for. Inside, Dante swore. "Dammit...call this a mech?"

"Well, our budgets don't that much into our mechs," said Cassidy. "We're supposed to be stealing Pokemon for lab experiments," said Butch.

"Dammit...just stamp the birds then...think you can do THAT?" said Dante

"As long as we have a functioning leg," said Cassidy.

May leapt back in time to avoid being a Blaziken pancake, only for Chloe to jump in and punch the damaged leg.

The metal buckled even further and the joints became nearly useless as the pistons ran out of room to move.

Dante fell over as the mecha came to a stop, allowing the two Charizard to ram it with a double Sky Attack. The mecha fell onto its side where its fuel tank exploded spectacularly, launching its three occupants into the air.

"I'll get you for thiiiiis!" was Dante's vanishing cry. Matt and the Charizard landed near the wreck.

"_Well, that takes care of those clowns,_" said Matt.

Charizard turned to snarl at him, the battle having awoke his Pokethrope battle rage.

Chloe walked over and said, "_Can we put a lid on the fighting now? There's nothing important to fight over now._"

Charizard turned, only seeing a Blaziken to battle before aiming a Tail Whip at her. Matt grabbed his tail and punched him.

Chloe groaned to herself and said, "_Men are always the same, no matter the species._" She grabbed both Charizard by their necks and brought their heads together hard.

This worked only to upset Charizard who aimed a Slash at her head, only Chloe's current reflexes saving her from never needing a hat again. Matt Slashed the Charizard before knocking him down where May did what Chloe couldn't, bringing a (burning) branch down on the Pokethrope's snout.

Blaze winced and said, "_Ooh, that'll smart._"

This did snap Charizard out of it. "_Grr...that hurt,_" he said.

"_Now can we actually talk this out or do we have to take you to a Pokemon Center before you'll listen?_" said May.

"_I will never go back to anywhere with humans...anyway..._" he added smugly, "_...how will you talk to them?_"

"_We're not going to stay Pokemon forever,_" said Chloe, "_That's the reason we came in the first place. We just wanted my brother out before he loses his humanity for good._"

"_I haven't forgotten anything..._" said Matt in a small voice, ignored.

--

Later, Blaze was picking a couple of flowers and talking to himself, "_So...May, can I call you May? I was wondering since you may be stuck as a Blaziken for a possibly long time, perhaps I could show a special place in the forest. It's a really nice place to have dinner at..._"

"_No...that makes me sound like a complete Psyduck,_" he muttered. He had overheard Chloe telling May how she was going to beat a cure out of Dr. Zine if she had to and that May would get it first. Blaze had decided to try to cheer May up as best he could. "_Oh, well...here goes,_" he said and headed back.

Before Blaze could make it to the ship, he came upon both Chloe and May. "Hey, Blaze," said Chloe, "Finally managed to get back in our own skins." "What's the flowers for?" asked May. "_Um, nothing,_" said Blaziken, burning them up.

Chloe nodded. Zine had luckily already put a cure together, fear giving his brain a boost. He'd also managed to modify the earpieces into translators to use for a while.

May shrugged. "Ok...Matt'll be staying a while longer till we can get in contact with Lily or Dr. Zine has a cure of his own," she said, happily and looked confused as Blaze said, "_Ok...that's good...._" before spontaneously bursting into tears.

--

A little while later, May and Chloe walked into the gym and spotted Matt holding a few papers. Whatever was on them was apparently very funny as he couldn't stop giggling.

"Whatcha looking at?" asked Chloe. Max quickly hid the papers behind his back and said, "Oh, nothing, nothing important."

Matt looked up in horror and then smiled innocently before nodding.

Chloe looked suspiciously at Matt. They weren't wearing the translators right now due to no spare power cells, but she knew when Matt had something to hide.

Just then Techo and Zine came in. "I don't really know if they eat Pokemon here or not," Techo was saying, "But that meat must come from-" He stopped when he saw that Chloe and May were in the same room as the papers.

"Oh, hey Chloe," said Techo slowly, "I didn't think you'd be in here." He hissed at Max, "Why did you bring those in here?" Zine just kept his mouth shut.

Anderson gulped. "I told you not to do it, partner," he muttered.

"Hey, don't look at me," said Techo, "Zine's the one who handed those to Max." Zine glared at Techo and said, "At least I'm a decent shot. Or perhaps you meant that dart to land in her rear?"

Chloe and May's faces turned nasty. Zine realized what he had just said. "Oh no," he said.

"Ok, give me those papers now," demanded Chloe, holding her hand out. "Uh, I don't see why I have to," said Max, putting the papers behind his back, "I keep them for as long as I want." Just then, May snatched them away and started looking at them. As they looked, her face got increasingly redder.

Zine noticed that everyone was moving away from him, or from their opinion, giving May a run up.

"What is it?" asked Chloe, taking the papers away. She saw that they contained pictures of May in various stage of molting and covering her bare skin. This would have been enough to arouse Chloe's wrath when she found one picture of herself, as a human barely covered with feathers on the wrong parts and a dart sticking out of her butt. "Bet Drew would love to see those, eh May?" said Max.

"_Ix-nay, ix-nay,_" hissed Matt.

Techo had the best response. "Run?" he suggested.

The two mercs and Zine quickly tried to exit the door at the same time, only to get stuck. They tried to wriggle through, but then they felt Chloe's hands grabbed them by the back of their shirts and pulled them back in.

Matt was cowering in the corner, an impressive sight to be seen in a large dragon.

"_I had nothing to do with this,_" squeaked Matt. "_It was all their idea. I was just trying to get a quick laugh._"

Unfortunately, May and Chloe's wrath spared no prisoners, not even Max who barely knew what hit him when he was picked up and thrown at the mercs. It turns out that Chloe knew just as much about professional wrestling as Matt did.

Matt didn't feel much of the punches but he still cringed. "_I'LL BURN EM!_" he screamed and roasted the pictures, in the hope of preventing further injuries.

It was of no avail and the room soon echoed with the screams for mercy of the five boys. Just as Chloe was slamming Anderson onto Techo, Munchlax walked into the room. "_Munchlax, do something!_" yelled Matt as his foot was being twisted to his knee. Munchlax started for a minute before walking out of the room and returning with a bowl of Pokechow. He sat down and watched May pummel Max.

--

Dante walked into Vanya's lab. He was wearing a sling and had a black eye. "Look...we almost had him. He finally evolved, but his memories are intact," he began, a bit worried that all the lights were off. He saw Cleo trying to hide at the back of her cage.

Then he heard something behind him, what sounded like scales on tiles. "Um, Dr. Vanya, is that you?" asked Dante, looking around.

When he heard scales-on-tiles sound again, he pulled out his gun and started backing towards a wall. But he backed into something that was definitely not furniture. He over his shoulder to see there was something behind him that had a large, snakelike tail, a feminine humanoid torso, and a cobra's head that was glaring at him.

"MONSTER!" he yelled and fired, the shape dodging with ease. "You idiot, it'sss me," said Vanya's voice.

Dante paused when he heard this hissing voice. "Vanya?" he said. He flipped on a light switch to see what looked like a large Arbok with the former doctor's figure and arms. She wore a lab coat with a t-shirt and skirt underneath, but her legs being replaced by a tail prevented her from wearing shoes. Her entire form reminded him of an Indian nagi.

"That traitor, Cleo is resssponsssible," hiussed Vanya. "Tell me you managed to catch that Lynch perssson," she said, wringing the air with her now-clawed hands.

Dante gulped and took a few steps towards the door before saying, "Um, we kinda hit a snag when he evolved into Charizard. Also, his sister apparently was using a temp Pokethrope serum too and they, well, they beat us."

Vanya hissed angrily and leapt forward, grabbing Dante round the throat. "Then you'd better work out how to catch him. Otherwissse, I will sssee if my new fangsss are poisssonousss," she said, squeezing.

Dante would have said 'Yes, ma'am' immediately, but Vanya's grip had completely stoppered his windpipe and he was starting to turn blue.

Vanya pushed him away. "Are you ssstill here?" she hissed.

Dante immediately got up and ran out of the room screaming. Vanya looked at her long tail and said, "Thisss isss going to play hell on my love life."

**Oh dear…it seems that Matt will need that cure soon…and Vanya'll need it too…**


	7. Chapter 7

First off, Pokemon and the related characters are property of Nintendo and not of me or cydra.

Exo-Gene and the related elements are a company I made up.

**Loose Ends**

**Chapter 7  
**

The moon is known to have many properties. Chief among them in scientific terms is its control over the tides of the bodies of water on Earth. But it is well known for its several magical properties as well, particularly when it's at its full illumination. And several peculiar things have been known to occur when the moon is full.

--

Chloe had taken to sleeping at the gym under a fake trainer ID. Thus day was just before the full moon and something seemed weird about the gym today.

She walked over to the Pokemon's room where Matt was at. She knocked on the door and said, "Matt, it's time to get up." She heard a groggy voice say, "Ugh, just five more minutes." Chloe glared. "Matt. Get up, lazy ass...wait...you just spoke," she said and kicked the door open.

Matt had apparently realized that himself and was standing up and looking at himself. They were both surprised to see Matt in his normal human form. Surprise quickly turned to embarrassment when they remember Matt didn't have a stitch of clothing on him.

--

Luckily, Chloe had kept a selection of spare gear just in case and a little later Matt was being looked at by Dr Zine (In human disguise). "I don't understand," the splitter was saying. "What? Did that crazy virus wear off on its own?" asked Matt. "No, it's still there, but something's activated new genetic coding in it," said Dr. Zine.

"I think May might know something about this," said Matt, "I'll go find her and ask her." "I better help Dr. Lizard figure out what's going on with your body," said Chloe.

Matt had wandered off to look around...and to try and find some human food. He had an urge to eat something besides berries and Pokeblocks. He was just coming back from the kitchen with a sandwich big enough to need planning permission when he saw May outside Max's room. "Oh...hi...I can explain the sandwich," he said.

May immediately put her back against Max's door and said, "Oh, hi Matt, you're human again." "Not quite," said Matt, "Zine says I still have the virus, but something's altered it." "Oh, it must the full moon," said May, "It figures that it would give your human form." "Pardon? Hey...what's with Max? He has it too," said Matt.

"Uh, Max is fine," said May, "He's just a little bit more sensitive about what happens to him." "So? At least he can turn human...I wanna see," said Matt "I don't think that's a good idea," said May, too quickly to be considered passive. "Oh, what could happen?" said Matt pushing her aside and opening the door. "No! Don't!" cried May, grabbing Matt's arm.

Then a voice came from Max's room, "It's ok, May. They were going to find out anyways." Matt stopped and reached instinctively for a gun that wasn't there. "Ok...come on outta there, buster," he said.

"Ok, but brace yourself for a shock," said the voice. Before Matt could inquire further, the door opened and Matt's jaw dropped. Standing there was a young man 18 years old. He had blue-black hair that hung down to this lower back and a very well-toned physique that was barely contained within his barely-fitting pajamas. Pajamas that Matt had saw Max wearing last night.

Matt just stared. "Ok then...that's...unexpected," he said. "Yeah, you see, when Max first got the curse, he aged as he leveled up until he reached 18," said May, "He can be either age if he wants, but he's stuck at 18 during the three full moon days."

"Oh...ok...strange..." said Matt, still trying to get his thinking round it. "In a way, it's cool because I get to do grown up things," said Max, "But I have to wear different clothes and I have to avoid my parents until the moon's out of position."

"Why haven't you told us before all this? It's not like we could rat you out," said Matt. "Because there are certain things he's not permitted to do when he's this way and I didn't want you guys tempting him," said May sternly.

Matt slowly filtered this through his brain and his face slowly set as realization dawned...like a meteor impact in the distance. "Ooooohhh…" he said slowly. "Have Mom and Dad gone yet?" asked Max.

"Yes," said May, "They went into town to do some shopping. We'll have you out before they come back. Matt, can you think of a good excuse for him to be gone? I don't think going to a seminar will work every time."

"I can come up with something, but I'm more worried as to how they will take me suddenly appearing without having used the doors," said Matt.

"Well, I think there are other things you can do in town now that you've got your old skin," said May, "And don't you have your own room in your ship?" "It's 4 miles away...and erm...I forgot where I parked..." said Matt, before glaring. "I just spent a week out of my mind, gimme a break here," he said as they smirked.

"Well, while you guys are debating, I'm gonna go take a shower," said Max, "These clothes are really uncomfortable now." Matt sighed. "I'm off to get Chloe to tell me where I parked," he said before stopping, "Wasn't that crazy lady, Vanya bit as well?"

--

Meanwhile, at the Team Rocket base, things were less than peaceful. Dante and his team were all hiding outside of Vanya's room.

"Look, maybe she's ok now?" said a private to Dante who was pale. He'd been the first near-victim.

"I'm not taking any chances," said one of the grunts, "A month's salary couldn't make me go in there."

Dante grabbed him and pulled him eye-to-eye. "I'M NOT GOING IN THERE, YOU JERK!" he all but screamed.

Suddenly, a hissing sound came from Vanya's door, which made them all freeze. "GET IN THERE!" yelled Dante, pulling out a stun rifle. None of the men moved an inch forward. "Did I mention that not going would count as insubordination and could bring you up before the execs?" said Dante.

Usually this would have worked but one merc said, "Rather them then Vanya in her current state." "Really?" said Dante, "How about we test that theory?" Before the merc could protest, Dante grabbed him, opened the door, and threw him in.

The merc had however, sadly been taught by Dante and as such flipped Dante over his shoulder into the lab. "I quit!" he said and ran for it as Dante could be heard screaming.

--

Meanwhile, Matt and May had worked out their excuse for Max's absence. Max will have a room provided for him at the ship so he can avoid meeting his parents as he is. Then Anderson could phone Norman and Caroline that Max has won a contest and earned a three-day trip to a nature preserve.

"This is perfection. What can go wrong?" said Matt, cackling evilly. "Uh, I think I heard that whenever you've say, it usually backfires," said May. "Lies! ALL LIES!" yelled Matt, "Ok, there was a few instances, here or there, one including an oven. How was I supposed to know that those ingredients would react to tomato sauce like that?"

--

Meanwhile, Chloe was wandering with a yawn towards the ship's shower. It had been a hard few days and she needed one. She had just walked in when she saw a shape in the shower. "Oh, sorry bro," she yawned. The shower water drowned out the sound of her voice so the person didn't respond. Chloe waited outside, tapping her foot impatiently. After about three minutes, Chloe snapped, "Will you hurry it up in there? I want some hot water when I shower."

"Ok, ok, I'm nearly done," said a voice that did not sound like Matt's. Chloe's face set. "Erm, this may seem stupid, but who's in there?" she said, pulling a stun prod out a locker. "Just a sec, need to dry off now," said the voice as the water turned off. Chloe readied her stun prod in her hand. "I'm giving you to the count of three..."

Then Max walked out, wearing a plain green shirt and brown shorts. "Washing this hair takes forever," said Max, "I'd trim it, but it makes my normal hair super short…"

Whatever Max was going to say next would forever be a mystery as Chloe simply poked him with the prod and sent him back into the shower room via the zap. A second later, Max staggered back out again.

Fortunately, his Pokethrope nature gave him greater stamina than the average human. "What was that for?!" yelled Max. "Who are you and what are you doing on this ship?" demanded Chloe. "It's me, Max, hasn't Matt told you yet?" "Silence!" yelled Chloe and zapped him again.

Matt wandered round the corner as this happened and said in a bored voice, "Hey, Max," he said in passing. Chloe looked stunned before saying, "M-Max?" "Yeah, it's me," said Max, "It happens when the moon's full. I have to avoid my parents until I'm back to normal. And I seem to have this weird effect on girls." "What effect?" asked Chloe.

Just then, Chloe noticed how handsome Max was as a young adult. Not to mention there was something in the air that was so intoxicating. "How long were you holding back on me?" she said in a seductive voice. "Pardon?" asked Max.

"I don't think I've shown you my room," said Chloe, "Perhaps we can spend a little 'quality time' in there."

Matt had taken cover round the corner and was counting under his breath. He got to 10 when Chloe's eyes refocused and turned into a glare. "Get...away from me," she said before poking him with the tazer again.

Matt walked back to spot Max on the floor, twitching slightly. "Hey, it wasn't his fault, not directly," said Matt. "Oh no?" said Chloe, "Then what was it that made me act that way?" May walked in. "Oh no, the pheromones?" she asked.

Chloe sighed. "Should have guessed," she muttered. "What pheromones?" asked Matt. "When he's this old, he gives out some kind of musk that makes girls fall for him," said May. "Mostly ones around his current age?" asked Chloe. "Yes, the worst was when he went to the beach once. I thought there was going to be a nasty incident," said May, shuddering at the memory.

"So, why aren't you suffering from the 'come hither' from me?" said Matt. "I don't think you're giving out any musk," said May, "Anyways, er, I kinda already had someone in mind." Her cheeks turned bright red as her thoughts drifted towards Drew.

"Ok, anything else the full moon does?" asked Chloe. "Well, when the moon's up, the most human Max can get is a half human form," said May, "I wonder if it'll be the same with Matt?" Chloe looked thoughtful. "I wonder...how can we find out?" she said evilly.

"Through Zine I hope," said Matt, "I mean, you can't simulate full moonlight, right?" "The tech's still being tested, the team on Chimera station are working on it. Something about keeping test subjects around," said Anderson. Matt sighed and said, "Oh, thank good-, er, I mean, that's too bad."

**Back at Vanya's lab...**

Dante dived out the door and pushed it shut. "Ok...where's the wiseguy who pushed me in there?" he panted, in terror. "He handed in his resignation and ran off," said one of the grunts.

Dante glared. "At least she can't get out..." he said before wincing as there was a crash from inside the room. "She's too large to fit in the ventilation system, right?" asked Dante. "Probably not..." said the grunt in a worried voice before looking in, "Erm...good news, she's not in the vents."

Dante peered in to see a large hole in the wall. Dante went in and inspected the hole's edges. They weren't so much broken off as they were melted. "I forgot that she could create acid," said Dante.

"What do we do now, sir?" asked the grunt. "What else?" said Dante sweetly before pulling him eye to eye and screaming "WE FIND HERRRR!!!!"

--

Meanwhile, Matt decided to enjoy his humanity while it lasted. He'll just need to remember to keep an eye on the sky so he won't be anywhere near people the full moon appeared. That and to be more cautious when picking up girls.

He had also decided to keep a distance from May. He had a bad feeling that she would not have mind immunity. However, as he was walking around the corner of one building, he found May on the other side not a few feet away. "EEK...I mean, Hi, May," said Matt, jumping back.

"Oh, hi Matt," said May, "How's Max doing at the ship?" "Fine, Chloe got a dose of the come hither, then she electrocuted him," said Matt, keeping his distance "What? Again?" asked May.

Matt nodded. "My sister's just as resistant against mind control as I am, but emotion inducement is another thing. It wore off in time, but she was not happy," said Matt, calming down and walking closer.

"I understand," said May, "When Max is in his adult form, he has to beat off the local girls with a stick. I just don't want him to be tempted to do something reckless."

"Chloe hits back," said Matt happily, walking by and sadly putting May downwind. May walked by Matt for a minute before getting a dreamy look in her eye. "You know, Matt, I didn't realize how cute you were before," she said. Matt stopped rigid. "Oh no," he squeaked

Matt looked back to see May with a chain-and-ball look in her eyes. "Um, May, you're not really feeling that way," said Matt," it's just the hormones talking. Besides, you're too young. What am I saying? I'm too young." Matt backed up. "Ok...HEY LOOK, ITS PIERCE BROSNAN!" he said and ran for it.

Matt ran until he was positive he had lost May. He sat down on a nearby bench and sighed. "Phew, glad I lost here," said Matt, "The last thing I want to do is be hauled in for sexual discrimination." Matt heard footsteps and slowly turned his head to see a trio of female trainers. "Oh craposa," he whimpered.

"Ooh, here's a new face," said the brunette. "And a very handsome one too," said the redhead.

"Let's get our claim before someone else does," said the blonde. "No...Pierce Brosnen's over there," Matt tried, pale.

However, it was in vain and Matt found himself being snuggled by three beautiful women. He could probably name at least five people who want to be in his place, but one of those wasn't him. "Um, don't try to take my clothes off, this is a public place," he said meekly.

Three stun blasts hit the girls and a gas masked figure offered him a hand. "Thanks for that," said Matt as he got back up.

"It was my displeasure," said the man as he pulled off his mask, revealing Dante's face. Dante managed to grab Matt's fist as it shot towards his face. "Dammit, Lynch, this is not the time," he said before turning as two more women wandered round the corner, a zoned-out look on their faces. "Oh no, Vanya again," he muttered.

"What are you talking about?" asked Matt. "Hang on a sec," said Dante before stunning the two women, "Hmm, kinda reminds me of back home. Matt grabbed Dante and pushed him against a wall. "Ok...talk...NOW!" he said. Dante spotted May. "Later...run now," he said.

Matt looked back at May and ran away. As soon as they were far enough away, Matt said, "Good thing you spotted her. This Pokethropy thing's bad enough without this dumb musk attracting girls too young for me." "Look, it's not you," said Dante. Matt glared. "WHAT DID YOU DO?" he yelled.

Dante sighed and explained how his men had tried to capture Vanya after her escape...and how it had not worked. He pulled out a gloomy looking Ekans with a merc cap on. "That's my sergeant," he explained.

Matt gulped. "So, you're saying Vanya's caught the virus from Cleo and now she's spreading it around?" he asked.

"Yes, only she's stuck in a half-human/half-Pokemon form," said Dante, "You ever heard of a naga?"

"Yes, you mean like the receptionist back at CPS HQ?" Matt said. Dante nodded. "That's right...only worse temper."

"Oh great," said Matt, "And she's probably hunting for me to swallow me whole or something." "Well, she might, but not for that reason," said Dante. "What do you mean?" asked Matt. Dante leaned in and whispered in Matt's ear. Matt looked disgusted. "Ugh! That's horrible! It's like me and Max's musk in reverse!"

"Well...yes...she seems to amplify the hormone in reverse. So we need to catch her, quick," said Dante.

"We? Oh no," said Matt, "I'm saving myself for a girl I actually like. Besides, she'll probably eat me after she's done."

Dante glared. "How long before this mess overruns the town, then the sector?" he said, appealing to Matt's sense of helpfulness.

Matt gulped and said, "Well, it's only for three days. But then again, there's no telling what she'll do then. I suppose I better help with this, but I'm not going after her without something to mask my scent. One whiff of me and she'll be all over me like Heracross on sap."

"Don't talk like a local," muttered Dante before pulling out a spraycan. "How do you think I escaped?" he said and sprayed Matt in the face. Matt coughed and said, "You could have just handed it to me." "Yes, but that was more fun," said Dante, "It's almost moonrise. You gonna be ok? I'm not being bitten from the front and the back at the same time."

"Trust me, if I did want to get rid of you, I wouldn't waste time biting you," said Matt. Dante turned and stopped. "Are you sure the moon won't affect you?" he said, slowly. Matt shrugged. "Heck if I know. I'm not sure what would happen if it would." Suddenly, Matt flinched as his hand grew orange scales and claws. "That?" said Dante in an annoyingly cheerful voice.

"Oh be quiet," said Matt before all of his clothes started getting to small for him. First went his boots, which were ripped apart by sharp claws. A pair of wings and a tail tore out next and his mouth stretched forward into a muzzle, though his hair, albeit in the form of a mane. "Ow," managed Matt.

Dante peered out from the water barrel he'd hidden behind. "All better?" he said. Matt brushed the hair out his eyes and looked over himself. He now resembled an anthro Charizard, with his pants being the only survivor of his transformation. "Well, the bad news is that I'm gonna need to get new clothes. But the good news is that I've got one solid set of pecs and abs," said Matt, flexing his muscles.

"You know, now you're practically a neon sign for them now," said Dante, gloomily "Well, yeah, the burning tail tip does make it harder to hide in the dark," said Matt.

--

Meanwhile, Chloe was walking through the town. She had smelled something weird that had given her a headache, but nothing major. A few angry girls had tried to attack her, but she'd not done anything that wouldn't heal.

"I hope Matt's not in any trouble," said Chloe, "If this Pokethropy thing's really like a werewolf curse, he would transformed or something now."

She absently punched a charging girl out before walking on. "Wonder where the police are?" she mused.

Just then, she heard two voice. "C'mon, sweetie. I'll go anywhere you wanna go." "I told you, I don't want to do anything. Now go away!" The first voice was a woman's, but Chloe recognized the second one as Max's.

Chloe ran round the corner to see a woman in a Ranger uniform. Max was out of sight. "Hey! Back off!" Chloe yelled. The Ranger turned to her and said, "Sorry, ma'am, but this could be a very dangerous situation. I need to take this... Pokemon out of town before it-"

She was cut off when Chloe pulled out her stun prod and zapped her. "I'll take care of that, you have a nap," said Chloe.

Chloe walked over to where Max was and stopped. The figure in front was exactly as she imagined the classic werewolf would look. "Max, you should shave," she said, unable to resist a joke. "Oh ha, ha," said Max, "It's not easy having so much fur you know. Not only does burrs in it, but it gets caught in thorns, it's terrible when I get and I smell funny afterwards, and- Why are you looking at me like that?"

Chloe shook her head. "Oh for heaven's sake, this better wear off soon," she said, trying to shake the lusty feeling out her head. "Out of curiosity, what exactly is it that it's tempting you're to do?" asked Max. Chloe went passive. "You're too young, ask your parents when you're really 18." she said quickly.

Max looked confused and put it aside for now. "Have you seen May?" asked Max, "I was looking for when that Ranger spotted me." "Oh no, my brother's in town, " said Chloe, realizing how Matt's luck had seemed to work since they had come to Nullspace (I.e badly).

"Yeah, I was wondering about that too. Well, if I'm transformed..." He started sniffing the air. "Oh please," said Chloe, "You can't expect me to believe you can find that-" "Got him," interrupted Max, "He's this way." Chloe glared. "Move it or be neutered," she said, holding her tazer rod in a threatening way.

Max made a small yipping sound. He didn't know what 'neutered' meant, but he knew pain when he saw it. He quickly ran towards where Matt's scent was coming from with Chloe right behind him.

Chloe twirled the rod like a baton. "Just gotta know the right thing to say," she said to herself, kicking a door shut.

--

On the other side of the door, Vanya was rubbing her forehead. She was about to pounce on that girl when the door had been slammed into her head. "Ow…when I get that..." She paused as she suddenly realized she was not in her room. "What the...where am I...WHY HAVE I GOT A HEADACHE?" she said before turning to see several Pokemon trainers led by May standing behind her, "Oh crap...Back off, sssissstersss." she hissed.

To her surprise, the trainers stepped three steps backward. And not in the nervous backing-away kind, like simple automaton. Vanya stared for a minute. "Hop on one foot," she said and watched as the three did. "Well, well...finally employeesss who do what I sssay."

Then Vanya recalled doing an experiment with Cleo. She was trying to teach her Charm and the next she had known, she was riding a unicycle with her hands Cleo hissing with rteptilian hysterics. Later scans showed that Cleo's hormones had a hypnotic effect on Cleo and it would work on any woman. "Ok...thisss isss perfect," she said.

Just then, another door was incinerated with a fireball. Cleo looked to see Dante and an anthro Charizard coming in. "Hold it right there, Allisa," said the Charizard with Matt's voice, "You're not robbing the women of Petalburg of their wits and reason. That's what shopping malls are for."

Dante pointed a heavy plasma rifle. "Ok, you're not well, doctor. Time to go back to the lab," he said.

Vanya smiled and said, "Oh, I'm not going anywhere. Girls, keep Dante out of the way. I'll handle the flamebrain myself."

Dante turned his gun as the girls walked forward numbly. Dante tried to pull the trigger, but couldn't bring himself to shoot innocent girls. "Dang it, Vanya! This isn't fair!" shouted Dante. "Oh don't worry," said Vanya, "They won't hurt you, ssso long asss you don't move forward."

"Like hell...I can take a few girlies," said Dante, walking forward with Matt. "You distract her, lizard boy..." he said and stopped as he heard an almost monotone voice say 'Blaziken...go." They turned to see May's Blaziken looking confused.

"Blaziken, I can explain this later, but May's not-" Matt was cut off when Vanya pinned him to the wall.

"Ssso Matt, what do you think of the new me?" said Vanya, running her hand down Matt's chiseled chest muscles.

Matt gulped. "I don't date naga's..." he said as Dante backed up from Blaziken. "Look, I know you hate me, especially after the colony. But your boss is wasted on mind control hormones," he said backing up.

Blaziken thought about this for a minute and said, "_Maybe, but when's the next chance I'll have at this?_" Dante didn't understand what he said, but he was pretty sure the Mega Punch to the face was something universal.

Matt turned. "Blaziken, don't...oh man," he said as Dante disappeared through a wall. "Oh, come on, Matt," said Vanya, "It'sss ssso lonely in the lab. We could make a fine pair. Of course, the eggsss will hatch into Ekansss, but I'm sssure they'll have sssomething from you." "Get lost, snake lady," said Matt and breathed an Ember attack in Vanya's face.

Vanya snarled and wrapped her tail around Matt's longer neck. "You're resssponccible for making me like thisss," hissed Vanya, "If I can't have anyone, then you'll have nothing." "Yeah right, it doesn't work on my sister or my crew," said Matt before saying, "Where is Chloe?"

--

Chloe however was just outside with Max, looking at the section of wall against the wall in front of them. A half-squished Dante peered at them. "...Ow..." he rasped at them. "Hmm, methinks Matt's this way," said Chloe climbing through the wall. "Chloe! Wait!" called Max, "There's something else in there too!"

Dante peered at Max. "Erm...kid? Any chance you could move this wall squashing me? My legs are going numb," he said faintly.

Meanwhile, Chloe was in the room. "Ok Matt, I know you wanted to smash Dante, but could you have waited for... me?" She noticed several girls from Petalburg was in the room, including May. She looked and saw the anthro Charizard pinned against the wall. "Matt?" Then she noticed the female Arbok naga pinning him. "Er, Cleo, is it?"

"No, try again, onccce I clear your head," said Vanya, sending a cloud of Charm musk at Chloe.

Chloe coughed and waved it away. "Ugh, as if Max's wasn't enough," said Chloe, "Sorry lady, but I'm straight as an arrow and I don't find nagas... wait a second, Vanya?"

Vanya hissed. "SSSomeone kill those two newcomersss. I want some alone time...OW!" she said as Matt finally defeated his urge to not hit a girl after reminding himself Vanya was no girl before running for it. Vanya growled and sent a cloud of musk at Blaziken. Blaziken coughed and his eyes were replaced by hearts. "Hmm, not what I had in mind, but it'll do," said Vanya. She pointed at Max and Chloe and said, "Dessstroy..." She noticed Max's form and changed her mind, "The girl."

Blaziken advanced on Chloe who glared before bowing in a classic martial arts bow. When Blaziken's fighting instincts had him do the same, Chloe tapped him on the head with the stun rod. Blaziken twitched and fell forward. Chloe blew the smoke off her rod and said, "Ok, who's next?" The other girls pulled out their Pokeballs. "Um, that was kinda rhetorical."

Two plasma blasts burnt holes at the feet of the trainers. "Now then, ladies, play nice," said Dante, sporting a black eye and a missing tooth from his wall sandwich earlier. "Well, this is unexpected," said Chloe, "But I'm not picky."

Dante walked around the trainers. "Believe me, I don't like this either," he said, catching the first thrown Pokeball. "That's yours," he said, throwing it back to the trainer...hard.

--

Meanwhile, Vanya was dragging Matt away. "You know, there are plenty other guys you could pick," said Matt, "I heard there are strapping young Seviper out in Petalburg Woods." "Oh ssshut up," said Vanya, Matt's professional annoyingness was starting to get through her moon fever.

"Uh, let me tell you something, I have no experience with this kind of thing at all," said Matt, "Not the 'dragged away by a sex-crazy witch' thing, that's happened before, but, eh, I've never gotten that far with a relationship. Well...once anyway."

Vanya finally snapped. "THAT'SSSSS IT! YOU'RE DEAD MEAT!!!" she screamed. Matt probably would have screamed too if Max hadn't just crashed through a wall. "You stay away from him!" shouted Max, "No one eats my friends." "I do that," said Matt, briefly high on relief before biting Vanya's hand. Vanya hissed and backhanded Matt across the room before turning on Max.

Vanya grinned and said, "Mmm, you look like a better match." "Uh, what are you talking about, lady?" asked Max. "Oh don't be ssshy," said Vanya, "I can be very gentle."

Matt looked at Vanya. "You do realize he's only aged cause of the moon? He's 8 years old," he said.

Vanya's eagerness deflated noticeably at this. "Well...I'm a ssscientissst, I like to experiment," she said.

Matt looked grossed out and said, "That better be those crazy full moon hormones talking." Matt grinned suddenly. "Say...have you ever been poked with a stun rod?" he asked.

"Oh, you mean like thisss one?" said Vanya, her tail lashing around to grab Chloe. The tail quickly wrapped around her torso and started squeezing. Chloe gasped in pain and the stun rod fell from her hand.

Dante staggered round the corner. "Dammit, I'll never call girls the weaker sex again," he muttered.

Vanya didn't notice him Dante and grinned triumphantly at Matt. "Did you know that boa conssstrictorsss don't crusssh their prey'sss bonesss? They sssqueeze all the air out of them until they die." Chloe's face was starting to turn blue.

Dante almost tripped over the stun rod and picked it up. His inner dilemma reminded him that simply waiting would remove at least one of the Lynches from his life but another reminded him that he would not sleep well if he did wait. "I hate having a conscience," he muttered before walking up to Vanya. "Doctor?" he said. "Yesss?" said Vanya. "Sorry about this," said Dante.

"Sssorry about- GGGIIIIIIAAAAAHHHHH!!!" Dante zapped her with the stun rod at full charge. Vanya twitched and wriggled before falling over, out cold.

Dante sighed before hearing a thud. The other girls, the ones under Vanya's control had fainted. "Guess that solves that. I'm taking the doctor back to the facility. Next time we meet, don't expect me to play nice," he said to Matt who was helping Chloe up.

"You can count on that," said Matt, returning the glare. Dante then started hauling Vanya away, which was not easy since she was probably 300 pounds now.

--

Max however was trying to wake his sister up with the help of the now awakened Blaziken. With a groan, May came around. "May, you're alright!" said Max. "What happened?" asked May, "Where am I?" "That crazy doctor who messed up Matt was using some kind of Charm attack on everyone," explained Max.

"Everyone?" said May as she looked around at the still-unconscious trainers, "Er, Max, don't you think you should get out of here before they wake up?" Matt had wandered up behind her and said, "Probably a good idea." May's eyes went wide and she yelled, "Ah! Another space lizard!"

"Huh? What space- Oh no," moaned Matt moments before May brought a nearby mop on top of Matt's head. Chloe sat down and watched as Matt was shown the offensive capabilities of household mops as Max wandered over. "You know, usually I'd stop this, but I need a laugh," she said to Max.

--

Sometime later, Matt, Chloe, May, and Max were back at the ship. Max was somewhat offended when Zine wanted to study him. Matt was doubly offended when Zine wanted to study him and laughed at Matt for being mopped.

Luckily the transformation wore off when the moon set. Matt sighed as he put a new uniform on. "So...this happens every full moon?" he said.

"Every full moon and the days before and after it," said May, "and last night was just Day 1."

Zine made a warbling noise, a happy noise in his language. "Perfect...so many tes..." he said but never finished as Matt punched him on the nose.

"How about instead of working on something more productive, like a musk nullifier?" said Matt. "Let me guess, so you two can keep the other's sister off of you?" said Zine. "How'd you guess?" asked Max. Zine pointed to show May hanging on Matt's arm and Chloe draping herself over Max's shoulders. Matt glared. "Work on it...or I will eat you tomorrow night," he said

--

Meanwhile, Dante had Vanya carted back to her room. This time he wasn't taking any chances. He had the walls and floor lined with bulletproof glass and put on as many locks on the door that could be fitted.

Dante walked in to see Vanya glaring at him from the corner. "No point. You do not come out until the three days are up. These locks are impenetrable from the inside," he said, not noticing the door slowly swinging shut behind him.

Vanya smiled and said, "Ssso onccce that door'sss ssshut, nothing can get out?" "Exactly," said Dante. Just then, he heard the door close and the locks click into place. "Oh smeg."

Dante turned slowly around and looked at Vanya who had a triumphant gleam in her eye. "Erm, say, you wanna play riddles?"

The grunts outside soon heard the sound of Dante's screaming. Fortunately, Vanya had plenty of food brought in through a small dumbwaiter so she wouldn't eat Dante. Even more fortunately, they laced it all with birth-control medication.

**Poor Dante…sucks to be him for the next few days…please Read and review.**


	8. Chapter 8

First off, Pokemon and the related characters are property of Nintendo and not of me or cydra.

Exo-Gene and the related elements are a company I made up.

Finally…despite the name…this has no relationship to the pokemon episode of the same name

This is also an unofficial sequel to Cydra's Pokethropy Story, set a year after the events of that story. It is done with his permission.

Key:

**Pokedex entry**  
Human speech  
_translated pokemon/pokethrope speech_

**CPS Chronicles: Loose Ends**

**Chapter 8**

Matt was hoping that he'd be able to get through the next two nights without something really crazy happening. He was particularly unsure about tonight since it was the actual full moon. He was taking no chances, having locked himself in his room.

Chloe knocked on the door and said, "Matt, for Pete's sake, it's 10 hours until the moon's up. Nothing is going to jump you." "PROVE IT!" yelled Matt. Chloe rolled her eyes and said, "You're being ridiculously paranoid. Our scans have shown that Team Rocket's nowhere in the area, there aren't any rogue Pokemon causing any trouble, and Zine's given me and May some hormone nullifying nose drops so we'll be able to control ourselves around you."

"What about Dante's men? They're bound to turn up...or a necromancer chainsaw'll attack...or a maniac purple dragon..." said Matt, gibbering. "Matt, can you even hear what you're saying?" said Chloe, "There's no way you're ever going to be dealing with any dragons or evil chainsaws." "I say again...PROVE IT!" yelled Matt. Chloe glared. "Don't make me come in there," she said. "No! You may not even be Chloe! You could be someone impersonating her!" yelled Matt.

Chloe glared and pulled out plan B: length of piping from maintenance. She kicked the door open and walked in. Max walked by in time to hear a clang followed by 'Ow, quit it.' "And I thought May acted weird with me," muttered Max. Matt walked out, in his anthro Charizard form. "There was no need to do that," he said to Chloe, who was holding the pipe that was now bent at a 90 degree angle.

Max raised an eyebrow. "So you've figured out how to turn into your were-form in the daytime, huh?" he said. "Yeah...least I can modify it so my clothes fit," said Matt, flexing his fingers. "Good, but you probably might need to watch yourself around May," said Max, "As you can tell, reptiles creep her out." "Why do you think I mindwiped the ship location from her?" said Matt. "What do you mean mindwipe her?" asked Max.

"I can blank her memory regarding certain events," said Matt. "How so?" asked Max. Matt pulled on a technical-looking glove and said, "Like this," before waving it in front of Max's eyes, "That's how it works." "How what works?" asked Max. "Mindwiper," said Matt, waving the glove in front of Max's eyes, "That's how it works." "How what works?" asked Max. Matt grinned and said, "That never gets old." Chloe brought the pipe down on his head again. "Matthew, stop vaporizing braincells, it's rude," she said. Matt winced, "Fine, but where's Techo?"

**Techo's Location**

Techo had gotten really bored of watching Zine. Deciding to do something productive, he was browsing this world's Internet for anything useful, such as legends about Pokethropy or Pokemon-based curses in general. However he'd gotten bored for now and was hacking Team Rocket's accounts.

He had just finished ordering Vanya 3000 boxes of chocolate raisins and toilet seats when the anti-virus VI detected a thing trying to break into the firewall. "Oh great, they have bugs here too," said Techo, "Nothing a vaccine program won't be able to terminate though." "Unable to terminate under council law 21-D: sentience detected," said the V.I calmly before downloading the virus to a sealed program. "What, it's an AI?" said Techo, "I didn't think their tech here was advanced enough." "Unknown...displaying..." said the V.I.

A 3D picture appeared on the screen. It resembled some sort of creature maybe of polyhedral shapes. It was mostly pink except for its tail, feet, chest, and the tip of its snout, which were blue. It had two white hexagons for eyes with a pair of round pupils in them, the only round parts on its body. "That's the virus?" said Techo. "Is your scanning program corrupted again? Has Matt been on iTunes again?"

"Negative, subject is virus of unknown nature, digital DNA detected," said the VI.

"Aw, great, bloody Digimon again," said Techo in a bored voice. Just then, Anderson came in. "Watcha working on, partner?" he asked. Techo screamed and turned off the hologram. Neilsson had explained in graphic detail what he would do if the crew spilled the beans. "You looking up Pokemon?" asked Anderson. "I have no idea what are Digi- I'm sorry, did you say Pokemon?" asked Techo. "That was a Pokemon you were displaying, right?" asked Anderson.

"Um, yeah...that's it, a Pokemon," said Techo, "I was just going to find out what it was." Techo turned and began working at the controls. A match appeared immediately. "Porygon? Interesting," he said. "Any reason in particular you're looking up this critter?" asked Anderson. "I think I've found one, literally," said Techo as he switched the hologram back on.

"Nice find, so...what'll we do with him?" said Anderson, poking his finger through the hologram. In response, the Porygon in the hologram wiggled away from Anderson's finger. Then the hologram crackled with energy and Porygon emerged from it. It looked pretty much the same as its hologram, except solid. "Uh oh," said Techo and Anderson in unison. After a minute, it was clear that Porygon wasn't exactly up on events, especially as one of its eyes was gently spinning.

"Erm, nice fella," said Anderson, "Would you want something to eat?" "Anderson, it doesn't even have a mouth," said Techo. Porygon looked at them and made a funny whistling noise, apparently the equivalent of 'duuur?' before somehow biting a chunk out of the keyboard. "Hey! Those things don't just grow back, you know!" snapped Techo. Porygon turned and ate Techo's pistol, burping a laser blast at Anderson "Uh, I think we need to let the others see this thing," said Anderson, "And get it away from technology."

Techo watched. "I can look after it. It's just a program...so I can fix it." "But you barely know what this thing is," said Anderson, "Not to mention it's sentient." The Porygon started flying into a wall, backing a bit before bumping into it again. "Albeit not very sentient," said Anderson. The Porygon stopped when it set off some footage of when Matt had practiced his Flamethrower attack before looking at the two mercs. "Oh no," said Techo, getting an idea of the next 12 seconds. Porygon sent a blast of flames into the two. "...hickory smoked goodness..." coughed Anderson before the two keeled over.

**Later…**

The best place to bring Porygon to show the others seemed to be the forest, seeing how there's nothing technological to munch. Of course, it hasn't improved its grace much. And it hadn't stopped trying to eat, well, anything. Chloe found put first when the Porygon ate her mobile. "Techo? You have ten seconds to come up with a REALLY good reason why I shouldn't beat you and your new pet senseless," she said in a rigid voice. "It just popped up in the computer," said Techo, "I'm not sure where it came from." "Oh great," said Matt, "A junk mail Pokemon."

The Porygon nuzzled into Matt's pocket and came out with his old Digivice in its beak. Matt yelped and the two got into a wrestling match on the ground. May took the oppurtunity to looked up Porygon with her Pokedex: _Porygon, the Virtual Pokemon. The first artificial Pokemon designed by humans. It requires no air and can travel through cyberspace.'_

"STOP IT EATING MY DIGIVICE! BAD MUTANT!" yelled Matt, hitting Porygon on the head repeatedly to little effect. "Are Porygon normally like this?" asked Techo. "I don't know," said Max, "I've never seen one before." There was a short scream as Porygon started trying to eat Matt instead. Given that its eyes were starting in opposite directions, this was probably more reflex then choice.

"If Porygon are artificial Pokemon, then wild ones probably don't have the experience or instincts to guide them," said Chloe. "IT'S EATING MEEEEE!" screamed Matt, now trying to pacify the brainless Pokemon with a rock. "In other words, it's got about 1 byte in its processor," said Anderson. "I noticed!" screamed Matt, his scream becoming muffled as Porygon covered his head with his mouth.

"I thought they didn't have mouths," said May.

"Tell him that!" yelled Matt, "I think it's trying to eat my brain!" Chloe leaned close to May and muttered, "Poor little guy'll starve." "I think I can boot up its thinking capabilities," said Techo, "I've already started a program that should do the trick." May said, "I'm not so sure that's a good idea. Who knows what'll happen?" There was a muffled scream from the direction of Matt.

Chloe said, "Let's just do it," before picking up a fallen branch and aiming a swipe at the Porygon. Porygon noticed the incoming branch and spat out Matt's head before moving away. Sadly, that meant the moving branch hit Matt's head instead.

**Not far away…**

Butch and Cassidy peered out from their hiding place as matt was given moderate concussion via branch. Matt gibbered "Twenty-two degrees from the marshmallows, Ensign Rhubarb, and don't spare the hamsters," before falling over. Butch looked at his partner. "We've been following these guys for a week," he said. "And all we've found out about them is just how crazy they all are," said Cassidy, "But that Porygon looks it's dumber than all of them combined."

"I don't think that's too difficult," said Butch as Matt and Chloe started fighting. "Well, we're not going to learn where their ship is at this rate," said Cassidy. "So we may as well come home with a rare Pokemon in tow," said Butch, eyeing the Porygon. They stopped when they heard wings. They turned to see a Hoothoot. "Hoot?" it said before lunging at Cassidy.

…

Matt and Chloe paused in their fight when they both heard a pair of screams. "What was that?" asked Chloe. Matt shrugged. "Ah...it's probably those Team rocket idiots who've been following us for the last 5 days," he said. As if on cue, Butch and Cassidy tumbled out of their hiding place, Techo's Hoothoot vehemently pecking on Cassidy's head. Matt and Chloe looked at each other and grinned evilly.

Techo glanced at the two Team Rocket members and said in a bored voice, "So that's where Hoothoot's gone," before going back to working the program. Matt and Chloe cracked their knuckles before picking up the two team rocket grunts, Matt picking up Butch without apparent effort. "Do we need to put up a 'trespassers will be vaporized' sign?" he said. "Try to keep it down," said Techo, "Screams of pain are very distracting."

Chloe shook Cassidy. "Ok, jokers. first...and last warning: go away or have every molecule go off in a different direction from all the others, ok?" she said sweetly. Then Butch and Cassidy got out of the Lynches' grip and jumped to the other side of the clearing. "To inflict the world with devastation..." said Cassidy. "To blight all people in every nation..." said Butch.

The two mercs looked at each other and readied some blasters. "OH, SHUT UP!" they both yelled, blasting the grunts at point blank range. The duo was blasted up into the air, crying, "Team Rocket's blasting off again!" Techo glared at Matt and Chloe and said, "I said keep it down. I don't want to accidentally mess up the programming." Techo accidentally pressed the 'download' key. "Oh, great. Now look what I did. It's only half-done," he said.

Then his wristcomp started beaming the program to Porygon. "Uh, it shouldn't do that, right?" said Anderson. "The program won't be able to do anything," said Techo, "I'll just take it back out and fix it." "Unable to comply," said his wrist-comp. Techo shook it. "Stupid eBay junk," he muttered.

Porygon began to twitch and spasm as the half-completed program started finished downloading.

Matt and Chloe wandered over. "You broke it. That's why we make you buy your own things," said Matt. "Well, if a certain duo could have kept things quiet, my hand wouldn't have slipped," retorted Techo. Chloe watched as the Porygon glowed and split into two identical ones. "Urm, Guys?" she said as Matt and Techo argued.

Matt looked over at the two Porygon and said, "Hey, where'd the extra one come from?" Then one of the Porygon glowed and another duplicate came from it. "Uh, nevermind," said Matt. The others watched in interest as 3 Porygon became 6...then 12...then 24. "Erm...how do we stop them?" said Matt. "I don't know," said Techo, "I don't even know how it's duplicating in the first place." The first Porygon seemed unperturbed that a copy of itself kept popping out of it every 10 or so seconds.

"Look, what harm can they do?" said Chloe.

Matt said, "What about heading for the Petalburg power station?" Chloe said "What?" and followed her brothers point. Chloe saw the line of Porygon floating towards where the power plant is. "I thought Porygon were Normal types," said Max. "Nothing's normal about this one," said Matt.

May had been staring at the Porygon incident with absolute catonia but now she snapped out of it. "How do you get through the day in one piece?" she said faintly "Gut instinct mostly," said Chloe.

"But first we need to figure out how to keep the first Porygon from making any more pieces," said Techo as he trying to figure out what went wrong with the program. Max said "Maybe there's something in the Pokedex?" May nodded and pulled out her Pokedex before getting a nasty shock as a mini-version Porygon clone popped into existence on her head and tried to eat her bandanna with every sign of enjoyment

May's eye twitched and said, "No one...messes with my CLOTHES!" Faster than the Porygon could move, or the rest thought was possible, May swung around and kicked the Porygon straight into a tree, knocking it out. Matt wandered over and poked the recumbent Porygon before making a small whimpering noise. He'd planned to hide her bandanna for April Fools.

Then May looked at her Pokedex:

'_Porygon, being constructed of mostly data, is capable of being further enhanced. There are several items capable of improving Porygon, particularly an Upgrade item. However, since Porygon was created by Silph Co., it is not recommended to use programs not produced by Silph Co.'_

Everyone turned and glared at Techo who said "Erm...woops?" "We don't have time right now to berate you," said Chloe, "We need to use an Upgrade on the main Porygon." "But where are we gonna find that gadget?" asked Anderson. Matt thought for a minute before saying dramatically, "To the department store!" The others watched as Matt ran off. "Does this happen often?" said May. Chloe said, "How do you think we ended up in Nullspace?"

**Later…**

The department store apparently had its own emergency generator. The group burst into the gift's floor and made it to the counter. "We need an Up-Grade package. THE FUTURE OF MANKIND DEPENDS ON IT!" yelled Matt, pulling the shocked clerk nose to nose with him. The clerk seemed confused and she said, "Erm, ok sir." She went to the back and brought back a disc contained in a transparent case. "Here we are," she said, "That'll be $4500, plus tax."

Matt went pale. If there was one thing any mercenary hated, it was parting with alot of cash. Chloe gently pushed him aside. "How much is it with tax?" she said "Let's see, with a 5% tax, that'd be... $4725," said the clerk. It was Chloe's turn to stare. "That's robbery no matter what time of day it is," she said horrified. "I'm sorry, but all prices are final," said the clerk, "Perhaps you have some coupons?"

Chloe glared and the group moved away. "Ok...how much cash have we got?" she said

Anderson fished into his pocket and saw what he had. "I've got 24 credits." "I've got 30," said Techo.

"Uh, nothing that'd be for anything useful," said May as she looked through hers, "Ooh, I should use this makeup coupon soon." Matt sighed. "Maybe we can sweet talk her? Hold on..." he said, grinning evilly. "Matt...what are you thinking?" said Chloe in a disapproving voice.

"Use what you got," said Matt and wandering back towards the clerk, grabbing a hand-held electric fan on the way. "Hi, lady," he said, leaning on the desk, turning on the fan behind him. "Oh crap," said Chloe dully. "Hello sir, would like something else?" asked the clerk. "Well, I'm not quite satisfied with the pricing on that Up-Grade," said Matt as the fan started blowing his Pokethrope musk towards the girl. The clerk's eyes crossed for a second. "Oh really, good looking? I'm sure we could come up with something."

"Oh I'm sure we can," said Matt, flashing a grin at her, "How about we start off with a reasonable price in the triple-digits? Say…$100?" The clerk twitched as her business side fought back valiantly but ultimately futilely. "I'm...sure that's...nice," she said with gritted teeth. "Great, I knew a pretty thing like you could be reasonable," said Matt. In the background, Chloe was rolling her eyes with disgust. The clerk twitched before smiling happily. "Maybe when I get off, I can show you the staff lounge?" It was Matt's turn to go pale. "Eeep?" he managed.

Chloe's disgust turned to amusement as the clerk was losing more control of herself. "Of course, you could slash a credit card..." said the clerk as she was unbuttoning her shirt. Matt gulped. "Can't...busy…" he said in a gulp. Techo decided to step in before things got really indecent, especially with Max and May there. "Uh, we'll just take the Up-Grade and be on our way," said Techo, "It was $100 dollars, right?" The clerk seemed disappointed before bringing another disk up. "Free Dubious Disk?" she said, shoving it in Matt's hands along with a post-it note with her number on.

"Uh, sure, thanks," said Matt, quickly paying her with converted NSC credits. As he left, Matt said, "You may want to straighten your uniform before your boss sees you." The clerk snapped out of it just as the gang left. "Wait a second...WHAT THE HELL JUST HAPPENED THERE?" she yelled...but by then the gang were round the corner and accelerating. As soon as the gang were near the power plant, Matt said, "Phew, can't believe we got away with that." Chloe nodded and then smacked her brother upside the head. "Ow! What did you that for?" said Matt. "Principle," said Chloe.

**45 Minutes later…**

Several power station workers ran out of the plant, yelling. A Porygon wandered out and walked into a wall. "Ah...we found them," said Techo. Not far away, Butch and Cassidy had watched the Porygon invasion of the plant in shock. It wasn't something you saw every day, not even in this world. The Porygon were munching on everything technological. However, they weren't completely invulnerable as a couple were unconscious from being electrocuted. "I don't believe this. We could capture just a couple of these and we'd be promoted instantly," said Butch.

Cassidy added, "At least it'll be easy. They make Slowpoke seem like Alakazam." The two pulled out their Pokemon and got ready to throw them when a couple of Porygon noticed them. They stared at the Rocket grunts for a few minutes before they each let off a Tri Beam attack. On the plus side it didn't blast them off. However it did partially incinerate them. "What was that about easy?" said Butch.

"A minor fluke," said Cassidy, "They won't be so tough against our Pokemon." One of the Porygon however had wandered up behind Cassidy and tried to eat her hat...while it was still on. "MMMMPH!" she yelled, flailing. "Hey! Knock that off!" said Butch as he pulled on the Porygon's tail. A second one grabbed his phone and ate it. "Ok, that does it! Go, Primeape!" With a flash of light, the Fighting type Pokemon appeared and snorted angrily at the Porygon.

The Porygon stared at him with minor interest and said in Porygon, '_Dur? Monkey._' "Primeape, use Karate Chop!" ordered Butch. Primeape nodded and karate chopped the Porygon on the head. The Porygon however spoiled the attack by biting said hand. Apparently Crunch was a pre-built attack. Primeape yelped in pain and brought its other fist down on Porygon's head. Another attack it liked was also Harden as Primeape's hand made an interesting crackle noise and Primeape's eyes crossed.

Then Cassidy fumbled for one of her Pokeballs and released her Hitmontop. Sadly he appeared in front of a trio of Porygon clones. Hitmontop and the Porygon looked at each other with confusion. With the other Porygon teething on Cassidy's head, she couldn't give her Pokemon any orders.

They looked at the Hitmontop and said in Pokemon, "_BUDDY!_" and mobbed the luckless Pokemon.

"Ok, I've had enough with these four-bit weirdos!" snapped Butch and he picked up a discarded hammer and whacked the Porygon that was on Cassidy on the head. The Porygon was jolted enough to let go of her, much to Cassidy's relief.

The Porygon hopped down and glared evilly at the two Team Rocket grunts before making its eyes flash in a disconcerting way as it used Confusion on them. Primeape and Hitmontop, being Fighting Pokemon, were buffeted back. Pretty soon, the other Porygon were joining in with their Confusion, causing Team Rocket to lift off the ground. "Why do I get the feeling those Lynches are responsible for this?" said Butch before the Pokemon sent the group shooting off into the distance, not slowed down by the wall they met on the way.

When the gang got there, there was about 4 dozen Porygon floating around. "Great," said Anderson, "This'll be like trying to find a needle in a haystack." Matt pointed. "Probably not so hard," he said, pointing to a Porygon trying to eat the wall. "Uh, Matt, it's not acting any different than the rest," said Chloe. Then the Porygon flashed and another Porygon came out of it. "Forget I said that." "Ok...now what?" said Matt as the Porygon started to eat a substation.

"We beam the Up-Grade into the original," said Techo, already working on his wristcomp so it could transmit the disc's data. The others glared at him. Matt picked him up and threw him in the direction of Porygon Zero. "I think they're angry," Techo said weakly. Porygon Zero looked blankly at Techo. "Hey there, fella," said Techo, "Time to fix up your little glitch." He activated his wristcomp and started downloading the Up-Grade into Porygon. The Porygon looked at him...or at least faced him. Its eyes were spinning around.

Then the Porygon let off what looked like a chain lightning attack that hit the other Porygon, only it didn't look like they were being hurt. Then Porygon Zero became surround in white light. Its form shrunk and changed shape until the light faded, revealing a rounded-out and smaller version of Porygon. Techo laughed insanely, "IT'S ALIVE! IT'S..." May interrupted "Evolved?" "I think that's Porygon2," said Max. May checked her Pokedex:

'_Porygon2, the Virtual Pokemon. The evolved form of Porygon, Porygon2 was upgraded to be able to work in space. However, it lacks the power to leave orbit on its own.'_

Porygon2 turned and peered at Techo before pecking him on the head. It seemed more intelligent but its appetite was the same as it plucked his helmet off and ate it before burping at him. "Well, at least we won't have to worry about any more-" Matt was cut off when Porygon2 suddenly twitched and glowed slightly before a second Porygon2 came out of it. Everyone yelled "TECHO!" who winced.

"But it wasn't my fault...hold on," he said and looked at the box the Up-Grade disk had been in, "There's a warning. 'Caution: Do not use with custom upgraded Porygon. You have been warned'...oh smeg." The two Porygon2 looked confused as the other humans seemed to beat the one they liked the most. Of course, then they got distracted by the first one creating another duplicate. "Great...now what?" said Matt, as a fourth appeared and the Porygon went back to eating the power station.

"Uh, I'm not sure," said Techo, "I should be able to figure something out." Suddenly, all the Porygon stopped eating and stood still. "Now what?" said Anderson in horror. Then all the Porygon began to vibrate and glow. Suddenly there was a flash of light and there twice as many Porygon as there was before. Techo checked his wristcomp and said, "Um, the good news is that they're only duplicating at an eighth of the speed that Porygon2 is?"

Matt looked as another load of Porygon appeared. "What's the bad news? There's always bad news," he said "The Porygon2 have gave us the slip," said Techo. Matt spun to see a definite lack of Porygon2. "Oh bugger," he said "Let me guess, we won't stop the duplications until we find the original, right?" said Chloe. Techo nodded. "More or less...but I know what I did wrong," he said hopefully "Speak very rapidly," said Matt, embers sputtering out of his nostrils.

"I...put the disk in backwards," said Techo and dodged the Ember attack. "Ok, ok, I admit I haven't really been on par today..." said Techo before Matt sent a Flamethrower at him. Matt glared before going wide-eyed. "ARRGH! WATER! NEED WATER!" he screamed, smoke coming out his mouth.

"Ok, we need to find a way to bring this situation under control before we're up to our armpits in Porygon and Porygon2," said Chloe, ignoring Matt running around and screaming for water. Techo said, "How? Shoot them?"

"There ought to be something about Porygon2 in the Pokedex," said May as Matt ran past screaming.

Max said, "Shouldn't we help him?" as Matt ran into a wall and concussed himself. Chloe shook her head, "It only encourages him." May checked her Pokedex about Porygon2:

'_Porygon2, like its pre-evolution, is capable of being upgraded with various discs. The Dubious Disc is known to have a strong effect and deal with most problems regarding Porygon2.'_

Techo looked over at that. "Hey, weren't we given one of those?" he said, pulling out the Dubious Disk Matt had managed to get for them. "Well, it's the best hope we've got," said Chloe, "As long as someone makes sure it's in the right way." "Oh, shut up," said Techo in an annoyed voice. As they ran off to find Porygon2, they didn't notice the Pokedex adding:

'…_However, the effects of the Dubious Disc have been known to have extreme reactions. Therefore, only an experienced trainer should try to use one.'_

**30 Minutes later…**

They eventually found Porygon2 making a mess near a café. Techo slowly walked up to the Porygon2 and slotted the disk in. "BEHOLD MY AWESOMNESS!" he yelled, not noticing the Pokemon twitch and turn to look at him with red eyes. Chloe did notice "Don't you mean 'idiocy'? Techo only noticed about 2 seconds before he was hit at point-blank range with Tri Beam. Unfortunately, it had the freezing effect on him.

"I...hate...this...verse..." he managed before he completely froze. The other Porygon were following the first one. "Oh nuts," said Chloe. The Porygon2 started firing their Tri Beams, forcing the group to scatter. And with the original Porygon2 popping out another copy every 10 seconds, it was not fun at all. "Remind me to dropkick Techo if we live!" yelled Matt when he and Chloe dived behind cover. "Matt, you're a Pokemon, sorta. Go battle them!" shouted Chloe.

"Get lost. It's not the full moon yet!" yelled Matt. "Max doesn't need the full moon to become a Mightyena," said Chloe, "You ought to become a Charizard now." "He has training, YOU do it," said Matt. Chloe grumbled to herself and called to Max, "Max, we need you to fight these guys, Pokemon to Pokemon!" Max yelled back, "Just hit him. Get him angry," before going Mightyena and charging the Porygon clones. Chloe glanced back at Matt and said, "Ooh, this should be fun."

Chloe noticed a bucket that was being used to catch rain water from a gutter. A quick look inside revealed that it had plenty of water it. "Perfect," she said before sneaking up to Matt's side. She then stomped on Matt's tail, causing him to turn around to see who did it. Then Chloe pour the water down his back and hid behind a car. Matt snapped at that before twitching, his eyes starting to glow red. Chloe peered out "Maybe I overdid it." she said to herself. "Uh, he did it," said Anderson, pointing at Porygon 2. Matt roared before charging at the Porygon swarm, transforming in his rage.

The Porygon2 noticed him coming and quickly scattered to avoid the raging Charizard. Of course, the slower-witted Porygon didn't get so lucky. "Ok, now that we're on the offensive..." said Chloe. She went over to Techo who was still frozen. "We need to get you out of there," she said. "Hmm, if only we had a nice warm fire," said Chloe. Just then, one of Matt's stray Flamethrowers hit Techo. "Well, it's warm, but I can't say it's very nice," said Chloe.

Techo looked like he;d been stuck in a afterburner. "My everything hurts." he rasped and fell over.

"Moan later, fix Porygon2 #1 first," said Chloe. "Which one's that?" asked Techo. Chloe glanced at her watch and said, "It should be splitting again in a few seconds." The porygon prime revealed itself and was nearly flattened by Matt. "We gotta stop matt splatting the first clone...who knows what'll happen?" said Techo.

"Let's see..." said Chloe. She picked up a nearby pail and threw it at Matt's head. The pail hit the were-charizard hard enough to almost flatten it. On the plus side it got him to stop fighting...but on the BAD side, it got his attention. Chloe noticed Matt glaring at her. "Oh smeg," she said before running in the opposite direction with Matt chasing her. Techo loaded the dubious disk that began transmitting the now, prepared download. "Download begun." chimed the wrist-comp.

The Porygon2 twitched and began to glow as the chain lightning effect began again, affecting the other Porygon2 and Porygon. Then Porygon2 began to glow and change shift. When the glow faded, it was larger and had deeper colors. Its limbs shifted so it looked more like a hummingbird, except the wings were disattached. Its head was also disattached and upside-down, its eyes a bright yellow.

Chloe yelled as she went past. "GOD DAMN IT TECHO...I THOUGHT YOU SAID IT'D FIX IT?" she yelled before being forced to keep running as Matt went by, roaring. "Don't worry, I did," said Techo, "They're not replicating anymore. But I think this guy's evolved again." May checked her Pokedex:

'_Porygon-Z, the Virtual Pokemon. The evolved form of Porygon2, this Pokemon has been significantly upgraded to preform in space. However, it now exhibits behavior not added to its programming.'_

The porygon looked at him and said 'Cuckoo' and then tried to swallow him. Apparently its IQ had dropped again. "Um, wasn't it supposed to be smarter?" asked May. "I don't it's stupid," said Max, "Just crazier." Then Porygon-Z twitched and yelled, "I WANT A TACOOOOOOOOO!" The other porygon clones seemed similarly effected. Anderson was the one who had a good idea. "Wait...if these guys are all part of that guy...maybe they've all got a bit of his brain? He;s literally out of mind."

"Uh, I think we should get out of here before they start expressing themselves," said Max. Techo reached for his control and saw a command 'Delete carbon copies?' "Hell yeah." said Techo and pressed it. However, the Porygon and Porygon2 did not disappear. "Uh, I think they're real now," said May. Techo looked down to see what he'd pressed. 'Cloning complete.' "Uh, I think May's right," said Techo. Chloe glared at him and said, "You...idiot..."

Techo gulped. "Woops?" he said. The PorygonZ however was not looking as crazed now. "Porygon?" it said, looking at Techo expectantly. Porygon-Z stared at Techo before saying "Zappity zap-zap!" Then Techo was blasted backwards by Zap Cannon. Matt however landed behind them, snarling. PorygonZ turned and said "Oooooh..." before using hydro cannon at Matt. When the water cleared, Matt was back in human form in a three-inch-deep impression on a nearby wall, soaking wet. "Ow..." he moaned.

The porygon all looked at the group before, at a glare from the PorygonZ, headed for the power plants computer room. "Nobody ever speaks of this again...now lets split before the cops get here." said Chloe numbly.

…..

Surprisingly, the rest of the day was very quiet. Chloe was waiting to hear about Virtual Pokemon on the rampage, but there was only old news about them. "Did we get away with it?" said Techo. Not surprisingly, he;d refused to take his combat helmet off in cse of retaliations to said question.

"I don't know," said Chloe, "But 100 Porygon, 5 Porygon2, and a Porygon-Z don't just disappear. They're bound to pop up again."

Chloe was right...they had reappeared...

**Team Rocket HQ**

Dante's seargent peered out from cover. "Who the hell turned the spam filter off on the teleporters computer?" he yelled. The room was filled almost to capacity with Porygons and their modified forms. "I didn't think Porygon lived in such large groups," said another grunt. "At least they're not angry..." said a third grunt before bing charrd by a fire blast. "Never mind." he rasped and fell backwards. "Why don't we just catch them?" said the second grunt, "The boss would like having a lot of rare Pokemon."

"Fine...off you go then." said the merc. The grunts looked in minor terror. The lead porygons face seemed to say 'Don't even think about it, buddy' "Just be glad they don't have digestive systems," said the sergeant, "They'd eat us out of house and home." The blackened grunt said "They are." pointing to where the porygons really were eating the house and home. "What? How are they doing that? THEY DON'T EVEN HAVE MOUTHS!" yelled the sergeant. A blast char-boiled him. "But they have attitude." he coughed.

**Back at the ship…**

Techo walked into his quarters and shut the door. "What a day." he said, turning on his rooms computer terminal. Suddenly, the screen flickered and Porygon-Z popped out. "Buddyyyyy..." said Porygon-Z. "ARRRRGGGGHHHH!" screamed Techo, diving for cover. "SPARE ME!" he screamed.

Porygon-Z looked confused. "Buddy scared?" it said. Techo peered up from behind his bed. 2You're not going to vaporise me?" he said.

"Buddy make friends. Buddy make smart. No hurt buddy," said Porygon-Z. Techo suddenly smirked. "Nice...my own personal minion...today the net...TOMORROW THE WORLD!" he yelled, high on relief. Porygon-Z looked at Techo and said, "And humans call me crazy."

**Looks like Techo's got a little follower now...tune in next time.**


	9. Chapter 9

First off, Pokemon and the related characters are property of Nintendo and not of me or cydra.

Exo-Gene and the related elements are a company I made up.

Finally…despite the name…this has no relationship to the pokemon episode of the same name

This is also an unofficial sequel to Cydra's Pokethropy Story, set a year after the events of that story. It is done with his permission.

Key:

**Pokedex entry**  
Human speech  
_translated pokemon/pokethrope speech_

**CPS Chronicles: Loose Ends**

**Chapter 9  
**

It was a quiet day at the Petalburg Gym. The full moon has left and there was some semblance of normality again. Well...as normal as anywhere could get with the Lynches around. Chloe was finding out how hard it was to put up with a Charizard...made worse that said Charizard was her brother and therefore more or less impossible to control.

"Will you move your oversized butt already?" snapped Chloe as she tried to push Matt off of her bed. "I want to be able to sleep tonight and not smell cinders." Matt turned and smirked at Chloe with a look that translated as 'Not likely'. Chloe growled and walked out to find May.

Chloe eventually found May on the back porch. "May, how do you remove a fully evolved Fire Starter from your bed?" asked Chloe. "Have you tried a squirt bottle?" said May. Choe's expression could have been a statue for the sheer stoneiness of the on her face. "...A squirt bottle." she said after a minute, obviously not believing a word of it.

"Yeah, Fire Pokemon hate to be squirted with water," said May. "Is there a way I can do it without being barbequed?" said Chloe, her mind supplying a graphic interpretation of how a dragon would respond to something that upset it. "Well, you can try luring him off," said May.

Chloe glared at the wall and pulled out her blaster. "I'll lure him out all right." she said, walking back into her bedroom. May sighed and counted to herself, "5...4...3...2...1." A column of flame shot out the bedroom door and a blackened Chloe walked out, her eyes glinting with murder in mind while heading for a fire extinguisher.

"You know, you could sleep in my bed if you'd like," said May. Chloe had managed to pull the fire extinguisher loose. "Right after I re-enact St George and the dragon." she said. "And Mom said that me and Max acted crazy," said May to herself.

Meanwhile, Dr Namba had finally encountered that made him feel sympathy. The object of this sympathy was Dante, who had only just escaped from Dr Vanya's cell. "I...hate...everything." said Dante with a distant look in his eyes. "Now, now, It will take a lot to recover from... an experience like you've had," said Namba.

"Yeah? You sent me a DAMN BILL." yelled Dante, throwing a small receipt in front of Namba. Top of the list was 10 million dollars for the mech lost at the charmander colony. "It was dumb and dumber who broke that." said Dante.

"True, but they're employees, you're a freelancer," said Namba. Dante glared and he flexed his hands. "Urge to kill...rising." he muttered as Namba continued. "Well, here's something that'll keep your mind off of that. We've discovered a spring that contains several Pokemon, as well as evolution items that affect those Pokemon," said Namba.

"I REFUSE...It'll just go wrong cause of your pet gorillas and I'll get the bill." said Dante, angrily. Namba said "You could always keep Dr Vanya company..." Dante's face paled and he froze still. "How about we get you to your team, Mr. Dante? Mr. Dante?" Namba reached over and poked him slightly.

Dante simply keeled over sideways. Namba waited for a second and swore before getting on the intercom. "Get a medic up here. I think our mercenary is broken."

The next morning, Matt discovered a great advantage of his Charizard form: flight-capable wings...Which he was using to get his breakfast, only it wasn't really his. A laser blast shot wide of him and almost inconvenienced a innocent pidgey and adding a whole new terror to flying. "GIVE ME BACK MY BREAKFAST, YOU FLYING FIRESTARTER!" yelled Chloe, reloading.

Matt just angled his head back at her and blew a raspberry. Chloe glared and switched her morph gun to sniper mode. "I'm gonna turn you into a pair of boots." she said, before firing, and missing again.

Matt looked back to see Chloe holding up her modified morph gun at him and instantly thought, _'Uh oh.'_ Chloe then started blasting out a barrage of laser blasts at Matt. "IF YOU DON'T GIVE ME BACK MY BREAKFAST, YOU'RE DEAD!" screamed Chloe. On the plus side this worked...on the minus side however, Matt threw it back in his haste and it hit Chloe in the face.

Not very far away, Dante, Butch and Cassidy could see the lightshow in the distance. "Wow...The lynches are on the warpath...wonder who the victim is?" said Dante, wincing as he heard an explosion.

Butch nodded, he and Cassidy pale. "This is what they're like in a 'bad mood'?" said Butch weakly. Cassidy nodded before saying "What's that rumbling?" The group turned to see a herd of wild Stantler stampeding towards them, obviously frightened by the loud explosions.

"Oh no...please no." said Dante, sobbing a bit just before the stantler ran over them.

Meanwhile, Matt was still trying to avoid becoming Swiss cheese. Chloe was showing no signs of letting up soon. On the plus side, he was getting his full day's flight training right now.

On the minus side it was all in evasion tactics. A stray shot hit the ground behind a boulder causing an explosion. A second later what looked like a large pink marshmallow hit Matt in the face.

It hardly hurt, but it screwed up his projection enough to send him into a nosedive. Chloe let out an evil laugh that sent whatever pokemon were left fleeing before advancing on Matt.

May, Max, and Blaziken rushed outside. "What's with all those explosions?" asked May, "Is Team Rocket attacking again?" "No...but my dear brothers going to have a fatal accident." said Chloe, grinning insanely. Max sniffed "Why do you smell of bacon?"

Matt groaned and said, _"What hit me?"_ He glanced to his right to see a dazed-looking Pokemon. It was pretty much a pink ball with stubby arms, feet, triangular ears, a curly tuft of hair on top, a small mouth, and large blue eyes.

Matt looked at the new pokemon. _"Who're you?"_ he said in a slurred voice, trying to get his brain to work properly again_. "Jigglypuff,"_ said the Pokemon as it rolled onto its side to get back up. _"Erm...Hi...do you hit people in the mush often?"_ said Matt, before banging the side of his head_. "Much better. My Names Matt."_ he said.

_"I'm not a fighter, I'm a singer,"_ said Jigglypuff, holding up a small microphone with a green mouthpiece. Jigglypuff was about to reply when Matt heard something click behind his head. He turned slowly to look down the barrel of Chloe's morph gun. "Prepare to burn, dragon boy," said Chloe.

Matt yelped and pushed Jigglypuff in front of himself. _"MERCY!"_ he yelped. Jigglypuff just blinked and said, _"What?"_ Chloe took one look at Jigglypuff and melted. "Its so cute." she said, practically melting. Matt breathed a sigh of relief as Chloe picked up Jigglypuff.

"Oh, are you the cutest little thing I've ever seen?" she said. Jigglypuff smiled, greatly enjoying the attention. Matt sighed with relief and began to slowly creep away. Chloe pulled out a blaster and blew a hole in the rock next to Matt without even looking. "Where are you going?" she said, not looking and still talking in the same sweet voice.

_"Nowhere...at all..."_ said Matt weakly. Chloe kept smiling. She hadn't understood what Matt had said but the tone of voice had given her the right idea. "Hey Chloe, what have you got there?" asked Matt. "Oh, just the cutest little bundle of joy I've ever laid on eyes on," said Chloe, turning around and showing Jigglypuff.

Instantly, both May and Max froze in panic. "Chloe...do you know who that is?" said May in a fearful voice. "Its a cute little pokemon who wouldn't steal a mercenaries bacon from her breakfast." said Chloe. Matt however was looking at Blaziken who seemed to be trying to push stones into his ears. _"Why are you doing that?"_ he asked.

Jigglypuff then held its microphone and said, _"Would you like to hear me sing?"_ Chloe didn't understand its words, but caught their intention. "Why yes, I'd love to hear you sing," she said. Matt looked at Blaziken who looked terrified and was trying to push the stones in harder.

Chloe put Jigglypuff on top of a nearby rock and it took in a deep breath. "Chloe, wait! There's something you need to know!" called May. Sadly, May's warning was too late as Jigglypuff started to sing. Matt felt an overwhelming drowsiness overcome him before everything went dark.

The others also nodded off one by one, even Blaziken who couldn't find suitable ear plugs. Jigglypuff was about to get to the chorus when it paused and saw that its audience was asleep. It made an angry face as its body inflated with a honking sound. "Everytime, EVERY TIME they fall asleep on me," she growled. It removed the top of its microphone to reveal a felt tip marker. _"This will show them."_

Matt came too a few minutes later along with Blaziken. He noticed a pair of specs had been drawn on the fire pokemons face. _"Dude...your face."_ he said pointing. _"Not as bad as yours,"_ said Blaziken.

Matt sighed before looking to see that everyone had suffered the same treatment, including. _"Oh no..."_ he said horribly, he and Blaziken seeing the moustache beard and specs on Matt's sisters face. _"We're dead."_ he said simply.

_"Perhaps we can wash them off before she awakes?"_ suggested Blaziken. _"Yes...lets risk a heavily armed mercenary waking up with us standing over them...you first."_ said Matt. _"Uh...you're her brother, she'd never kill you, you do it,"_ said Blaziken.

_"Wimp."_ said Matt. _"Wuss."_ replied Blaziken as Chloe stirred behind them with the others before seeing her face and shrieking. "WHO DID THIS?" "We tried to warn you," said Max. "Jigglypuff gets mad whenever someone sleeps through its song, so it doodles on the sleepers' faces," said May.

"The powder puff did this?" said Chloe in a dangerously calm voice. Matt looked at Blaziken and Max. _"I suggest we run...far away...like the moon."_ He said. "That little pink narcissist!" snapped Chloe, "I can't believe I thought it was cute before." "Probably because of its Cute Charm ability," said Max.

Chloe glared "WHO ASKED YOU?" causing Max to jump behind May. "I'M GOING TO DESTROY IT!" Chloe screamed, grabbing her blaster and charging off into the undergrowth.

May said "We gotta stop her. We can't let her shoot a pokemon." "I don't think Jigglypuff deserves something that bad," said Max. There was a distant explosion. _"You want to stop her?"_ said Matt, weakly.

"If we don't, she'll probably burn down the whole forest," pointed out May. _"Only the bits with Jigglypuff is."_ said Matt. "Matt points out that only Jigglypuff is in danger, the rest of the Pokemon will be safe," said Max.

May said "That's not the point." before setting off after Chloe. "Oh boy." said Matt, taking off to help with the others in pursuit.

Meanwhile, Dante, Butch, and Cassidy were recovering from their trampling. "How much havoc can those Lynches cause in one day?" asked Butch. Suddenly a Jigglypuff, ran past them, looking a bit soot covered. "Did that pokemon look familiar?" said Butch.

A second later, a blue beam vaporised a tree and Chloe ran into view, looking very angry and apparently wearing a beard, specs and a moustache. "WHERE IS IT?" she yelled.

"Um, where is what?" asked Dante weakly. "The pink one." said Chloe, pushing the laser in Dante's face. "Was only asking." said Dante, weakly, before pointing in Jigglypuff's direction. Chloe immediately smiled sweetly. "Thank you." before running off in the pointed direction.

"Did that Jigglypuff do what I think it did?" asked Butch. "In that case, I feel sorry for what that girl's gonna do to it," said Cassidy. Dante nodded slowly before pushing the two down as Matt, May, Max and Blaziken ran by in pursuit of Chloe. "Lets just follow these guys...if I know the Lynches, they'll find what we're after...but lets wait till Chloe's calmed down." he said.

Chloe didn't show any signs of calming down. All the rage focused on Matt earlier was now pinpointed on Jigglypuff. Jigglypuff came into view briefly in a clearing. "DRAW ON ME, WILL YOU?" yelled Chloe, firing a blast that, if she had been paying attention, she would have seen caused cracks to appear on the ground.

"Chloe, perhaps you should lay off the pink ball?" said Max. Chloe turned to see the others come into the clearing behind her. "I don't care...it embarrassed me...only my brother is allowed to do that and live." she said, evilly as Matt landed.

_"Sis, it's a little pink ball, it's not worth it,"_ said Matt. Chloe turned as Max gave the translation before sighing. "Stupid fluffball." she muttered, before sitting down heavily...a bit too heavily as the ground started to rumble.

"Um, either you've been putting on weight, or this ground doesn't seem too sta-" Matt was interrupted as the ground gave out beneath them. The group fell down into a large cavern below with a barely knee deep poll at the bottom. Chloe was shocked back to sense by a reptillian wailing and looked to see Matt scrambling onto the shore, looking terrified. "Ok...thats wierd." she said, smirking despite herself.

"I did say that Fire Pokemon hated water," said May. Blaziken looked more annoyed then worried. Chloe glanced at Matt and said, "Calm down, you big sissy. You can't drown in it." Matt glared. _"You won't drop dead if your own personal pilot light goes out." _he snarled and looked surprised as Chloe picked up what looked like a rock and threw it at him.

Matt winced and started to growl at Chloe when the 'rock' she had thrown suddenly opened up, revealing a pair of eyes and a pink tongue. Matt and the Shellder exchanged a glance. _"ARRRGH!"_ they both yelled in Pokemon-ese then the Shellder used crunch on Matt's nose.

Matt flailed about as he tried to get the Shellder off his nose. "I wonder what that is," said May, checking her Pokedex:

'**Shellder, the Bivalve Pokemon. Shellder's shell is harder than diamond and can endure powerful attacks. When sand gets stuck in its mouth, it produces beautiful pearls.'**

Chloe watched as Matt started trying futily to get the shellder off by bashing it against the wall. "Does it say how to make it let go?" she said, adding "No hurry." with a grin. "Let's see," said May, checking her Pokedex.

'**Shellder's Clamp reveals vulnerable parts so it only uses it as a last resort.'**

Chloe said evilly. "Oh, we'd best leave it then. I wouldn't want to hurt it. Matt's perfectly fine." Max didn't seem so sure as he could understand the various words Matt was saying as he struggled.

Just then, the water near Blaziken started bubbling. "Blaziken!" scolded May. _"I didn't do it,"_ said Blaziken. Max said "I don't think Blaziken is responsible." as dozens of Shellders surfaced around them. Half of them were, if Max was hearing them right, egging the shellder on Matt's muzzle on indiscriminately while the others were looking at them curiously.

"I didn't know there were so many wild Shellder around here," said May. Chloe looked quite worried. "Do they look...upset to you?" she said, before slowly reaching for her radio, only to find it was broken.

Suddenly, a larger Pokemon appeared. It kinda looked like Shellder only its shell opened vertically and had turret-like spikes on it. Its small head had a sneaky grin on it. "What's that?" asked May, checking her Pokedex:

'**Cloyster, the Bivalve Pokemon. The evolved form of Shellder, its sturdy shell provides defense and offense by holding off powerful attacks while launching spikes.'**

Chloe looked at it. "Max? Are we in any trouble here?" she said. "Only if we get them mad," said Max, "But Shellder only evolve with Water Stones, it shouldn't be here." "Ok...we came down here with two fully evolved pokemon...one of which is a were-pokemon...I think we're passed that." said Chloe.

Cloyster blinked then shot an Ice Beam straight at Chloe. Chloe managed to duck the blast, only for it to hit Matt instead. _"Hate..."_ Matt managed. "Oh yeah, Cloyster are also part Ice," said Max. "Gee, thanks...can you tell em to not kill us please?" said Chloe sarcastically.

Suddenly, the Cloyster started to glow white. "Uh oh, I think it's going to use Spike Cannon," said Max. Cloyster quickly confirmed it by shooting spikes of white energy at the gang.

Chloe, May and Max dived behind a rock. "THATS IT...I refuse to be shot by a damn oyster." said Chloe, peering up and sending a blast at the Cloyster. Cloyster used Withdraw and closed up its shell. Chloe's blast ricocheted off. Chloe kept firing, walking towards the pokemon before pushing it onto a small water geyser and watching it shot into the ceiling.

Cloyster growled and its spikes started glowing blue. "Now it's going to use Icicle Spear," said Max. Chloe gulped as the Cloyster fired several icicles at her, only for a flamethrower to vaporise the ice spears in mid-air.

Chloe turned around to see Blaziken smirking. "Glad we have you along," said Chloe. Cloyster only looked angrier and shouted loudly. The water started frothing response.

More Cloysters emerged from the water, surrounding them. "I hate seafood." said Chloe, gloomily. There was a 'ping' noise and a shellder shot overhead making a 'wheee' noise and Matt sent a flre blast between the gang and the Cloysters.

The Cloysters, being part Ice, back off a bit from the fire. _"You leave them alone...what did we do to you?"_ roared Matt. _"You are intruders,"_ said the first Cloyster, _"We don't want outsiders in our sanctuary."_ "We fell through the roof, you fish brain." said Matt.

"Then you will leave through it or else," said the Cloyster. Matt looked up. _"You hurt my wings...we can't go anywhere."_ said Matt, flexing his wings and wincing a bit as they ached. _"Yeah, easy up on the hostility,"_ said Max.

The shellder and Cloyster all turned to look at Matt before cringing back from him. "Pokethrope." was the word they were all muttering_. "Uh, you're not going to go all xenophobic and attack us, are you?"_ asked Matt.

That seemed to be the furthest thing from their minds, some of then fighting to be furthest away. Those unable to get away were trying to look as unthreatening as possible. Chloe sighed and said, "Can you at least tell us a way to get out of here?"

The shellder and Cloyster all shot to the side, clearing the group a path out of the cave. _"Um, thanks?"_ said Matt. Max said. "Somethings got these pokemon scared stiff." looking at a shellder that fled when it saw him looking.

_"Yeah, us,"_ said Matt. _"No...worse then us...they could have beaten us easy with sheer numbers."_ said Max. "Well, how about we settle this aboveground?" said May. The group walked along the tunnel they had been chosen. After a few minutes gave a pained yelp. His tail flame had gone in the water. Chloe looked down to see the water looked deeper. "Guys?" she said.

Matt panicked and lashed his tail out of the water, spraying water everywhere. Fortunately, it was still burning. _"It'll take more than a quick dip for it to go out,"_ said Blaziken, "_It'll have to be underwater for a longer time."_

Chloe however said "We can't go further...what if the tunnels submerged up ahead?" Matt freaked out even more. _"Me? Swimming? No way! Not as a human and definitely not as a Charizard!"_ Chloe added "Plus we don;t even know if the tunnel ahead is big enough for Matt."

_"That's it. I'm not moving one inch forward,"_ said Matt. Chloe and May looked to see Matt stop and look quite immovable. "Dammit. We have to go back...I know my brother. He won't go an inch further." "Too bad we don't have his Pokeball," said May. Matt glared. _"No pokeballs...I hate those things."_ he said.

"Well, the only way is back," said Max, "And his wing's too sore to fly. How good's his climbing?" "He'll climb." said Chloe, checking the charge on her rifle. Matt glared at Chloe. _"You are not going to cattle prod me up that hole,"_ he growled. "No...I'll shoot you up the arse instead." said Chloe sweetly once Max had translated.

_"Then I'll torch you down your throat,"_ said Matt. May broke off the mounting tension by yelling, "CAN WE JUST GET OUT OF HERE BEFORE I CATCH A COLD!" Chloe and Matt looked at May in shock before nodding slowly.

The group headed back into the cavern they came in from. The Shellder and Cloyster had all left. "Ok, now what do we do?" asked Max. "Let me think for a minute," said Chloe.

Suddenly a blast of water hit her in the back of the head. This kind of sent her nerves spiralling into nuttiness again and she spun and blasted a 3 foot long passage in the rock, sadly also using up the last of her lasers charge. "Who...Did...THAT?" she yelled.

Suddenly, a trio of small round Pokemon came out behind a rock. They were blue with small feet, fish-like tails, a white and black spiral on their bellies, and a cute face on top. "What are those?" asked May, checking her Pokedex:

'**Poliwag, the Tadpole Pokemon. Poliwag are awkward on land, but fast in water. The spiral on their bellies allow them to hypnotize predators.'**

Matt peered down. _"Hah. I have more then enough will to resist any hypno..." _The spirals on the Poliwag's bellies started spinning slightly, causing Matt to become dizzy. _"I...feel...weeeeeeird..."_ he said. Chloe sighed as the poliwag responsible got Matt to hop on one foot.

"Cute little guys, aren't they?" said May. "Mischievous ones too." said Chloe as the poliwag got Matt to hit himself with a rock.

_"What are you guys doing?"_ asked a voice. Another Pokemon entered the cavern. This one looked like a Poliway, only larger, a deeper shade of blue, its spiral went in the opposite direction, no mouth or tail, and arms ending in mittens. May checked her Pokedex:

'**Poliwhirl, the Tadpole Pokemon. The evolved form of Poliwag, Poliwhirl is more capable of moving on land. It secretes an oily fluid to keep its skin moist.'**

Chloe and May span to see the polywhirl. Matt managed between impacts with the rock to say. _"Make._ *thud* _Them_ *clunk* _stop_ *donk* _please."_ *clunk.

_"Ok, little ones, leave the Charizard alone,"_ said Poliwhirl. The Poliwag moaned, but made Matt stop. Matt managed to say _"Thank you, Captain...request permission to be severely concussed."_ before falling backwards.

The Poliwhirl turned to the rest and said, _"Sorry, the little ones tend to get restless and they'll look for any form of entertainment."_ Max translated for the others and Chloe shrugged. _"Believe me...worse things have happened to Matt."_ she said.

_"What are you doing down here anyways?"_ asked Poliwhirl. Max pointed up. _"We kind of dropped in."_ Poliwhirl looked up at the hole in the ceiling and said, "_I see. Can't your Charizard fly you out?"_ Max sighed. _"A cloyster hit him with ice beam. His wings still healing."_

_"Then you better come with me so you can recover,"_ said Poliwhirl, _"Come along, children."_ The Poliwag hopped after the Poliwhirl. Chloe sighed and got a cupful of water before splashing it on Matt to wake him up.

However, Matt never liked to be woken up via water, even as a human. So his first action once he was awake was to Flamethrower the person that splashed him. There was then a very tense second as his brain supplied him with what he'd just done before running off and hiding. "I know where you sleep." said Chloe evilly, before pinching out a candle flame on her head. _"Are those two normally like that?"_ asked Poliwhirl.

Max was trying not to smirk. _ "More or less..."_ Poliwhirl looked from Matt to Max and said, _"You two are Pokethropes, aren't you?"_ Max nodded_ "Yeah...but we aren't going to fight any of you..."_ he said.

_"You don't seem the aggressive types anyways,"_ said Poliwhirl. There was a whimper from Matt when Chloe kicked him. _"Well, you seem more like the type who takes punishment than give it." "Family argument." _said Max quickly.

The tunnel led into a much bigger cavern complete with pool. There were a few slowpoke sitting at the edge or on rocks in the pool with their tails in the water. Matt walked over to one of them and said, _"Hi there. Whatcha fishing for?"_

The slowpoke turned to look at Matt with a distant expression. Matt said _"Erm...hello?"_ he said, tapping the Slowpoke gently on the head, half expecting a hollow noise.

_"Slooooooww..."_ Slowpoke simply rolled onto its side. Matt looked at the Slowpoke before poking him. _"Wow...either he's an idiot or a philosopher." _"What's with him?" asked May, checking her Pokedex:

'**Slowpoke, the Dopey Pokemon. This Pokemon spends most of its time fishing with its tail. However, it's brain has notoriously slow stimuli and it takes as much as 5 seconds for it to process pain.'**

Matt looked at the Slowpoke who as he turned away said _"Shellder." "Oh please,"_ said Matt, _"Like a Shellder would just swim up and bite you on the tail."_ Just then, a Shellder hopped out of the water and Clamped onto Matt's tail. The others watched in embarrassed amusement Matt tried to get the shellder off, only for another one (probably the same one from earlier) jumped up and bit him on the nose.

"I can't imagine why a Slowpoke would want to fish for Shellder," said Max.

Just then, the Slowpoke felt a tug on his tail and he lifted it out of the water, revealing a Shellder latched onto. _"Aaaahhh..."_ he said before both he and the Shellder were covered in white light. The two of them grew until the light faded. The Slowpoke looked somewhat similar to before, only it was standing on its hind legs, its front feet had become hands, and the Shellder was now a spiral shell.

Matt had evidently managed to get the shellder on his face off as it flew overhead going 'fweee' closely followed by the one that had bit Matt on his tail. "Wow...that wierd..." said Chloe. May checked her Pokedex:

'**Slowbro, the Hermit Crab Pokemon. When a Shellder bites a Slowpoke's tail, the two of them merge into Slowbro. They form a symbiotic relationship until the Shellder ever falls off and the Slowbro becomes a Slowpoke again.'**

"Then why are they trying to eat my brother?" said Chloe, adding "Maybe they mistook my brothers IQ for a slowpokes...hahahARRGH!" she said asa well aimed flamethrower hit her.

Slowbro turned back to the Shellder on his tail and asked, _"Wanna get something to eat?"_ The Shellder mumbled something, unable to speak properly because of having its mouth full of tail. _"Ok,"_ said Slowbro before walking off.

Blaziken said _"We had some trouble earlier with the shellder and Cloyster. Something had them on edge."_ to Poliwhirl. _"Some humans have been trying to catch us lately," _said Poliwhirl, _"They're worried they'll be separated from their friends and family."_

_"No...they could have easily just run...they attacked us straight off...well...admittedly one had bit Matt on the tail."_ said Blaziken. _"I guess they took Poliwrath's advice too literally," _said Poliwhirl. _"Who's Poliwrath?"_ asked Max. _"What's going on here?"_ demanded a voice. The two of them turned to see a Pokemon that looked like Poliwhirl, only larger, broader, more muscular, and with smaller eyes.

Matt was rubbing his snout and turned to see the newcomer. _"Who the smeg are you?" _he said, peering down. Chloe winced as the new pokemon used mega punch on the top of Matts head. _"Ooooowww... I was still recovering from the last time someone's punched my head,"_ moaned Matt. Chloe glared. "That little smeghead...nobody hits my brother except me."

"Let's see who this is," said May, checking her Pokedex:

'**Poliwrath, the Tadpole Pokemon. When a Poliwhirl evolves into Poliwrath, it gains Fighting-type powers and strong swimming abilties. They are known to be more aggressive and willing to pick fights.'**

"I noticed. So that guys why we were nearly turned into pin cushions earlier?" said Chloe. _"What are these humans doing here?"_ demanded Poliwrath, _"Get them out of here now!"_

Poliwhirl said _"They can't...not until their charizards wing is healed. Your 'students' attacked them without warning." _"_Just like I taught them,"_ said Poliwrath, _"Hit your enemies before they make a move. Don't give them a chance to do anything."_

Poliwrath glared at them. _"I want them gone."_ Poliwhirl sighed and said _"You'd want to take on 2 pokethropes?"_ he said. Poliwrath looked at Max and Matt and said, _"Those two are Pokethropes?" _Poliwhirl would have smirked had his face allowed it and said _"You didn't notice?"_

_"Well, I guess they can stay here for a little while,"_ said Poliwrath, _"But I want the humans gone as soon as possible." _Poliwhirl said _"You won't be in charge forever."_ before going off to tell Max.

_"What's that Poliwrath's problem?"_ asked Max. _"He was always a bit self-absorbed with his own power,"_ said Poliwhirl, _"Since the day he found that Water Stone, he started pushing his opinions onto everyone else."_

_"Isn't there anything you can do about him?"_ said Max, before hearing a yelp and a shellder go flying between them. Apparently one of them had bit Chloe's foot.

_"Unfortunately, the Shellder and Cloyster look up to him because he's so strong. The Slowpoke and Slowbro don't really notice him and Slowking doesn't want to start any fights,"_ said Poliwhirl. _"There's a Slowking here?"_ said Max.

_"Yes, he spends much of his time studying the mysteries of nature,"_ said Poliwhirl, _"He may know something about Pokethropy."_

**Meanwhile, back on the surface...**

Dante, Butch and Cassidy looked down the hole that the Lynches had made earlier. "Ok...we were told to find a spring...we found one. "We should probably check this thing out before going in," said Butch. "The Lynches are probably down there and beating us to those Pokemon by now," said Dante.

"The guys with the lasers?" said Cassidy. Suddenly going back to base to have lunch sounded very appealing. "Right, so I say there's no fault in going back and returning at a better time," said Dante, "Especially if that girl's still in a bad mood."

The others all shuddered and turned to leave, Dante taking the lead. However when he took a step away, the ground started to rumble. "Oh...crud." said Dante and a second later the ground gave way, depositing the trio into the pool below...the shellder filled pool.

Blaziken paused for a moment and said, _"Did you hear something?" "Like what?"_ asked Max. _"Like someone yelping in pain,"_ said Blaziken. _"Probably just Matt and Chloe again,"_ said Max.

Blaziken _shrugged "I suppose...We should keep an eye on Poliwrath..."_ he said. "Yeah, that guy's definitely pushing too much of his weight around here," said Max. "The last thing we want is him riling up the pokemon against us." said Blaziken. "Then maybe we should find a better leader for them," said Max.

Matt had wandered up and was listening. _"How will that work? Squash Poliwrath and pick one out of the crowd?" "Maybe we should try to convince Slowking to help,"_ said Max, _"He's part Psychic and Poliwrath's part Fighting, Slowking would have an advantage over him."_

_"From what Poliwhirl told Max, he has no interest in kicking Poliwraths butt."_ said Matt. _"Well, we'll just have to convince him that he can't let the Poliwag and Poliwhirl get pushed around anymore,"_ said Max. _"Hmm...do we know his view on pokethropes?"_ said Matt_. "Well, not really, but we're gonna find out anyways,"_ said Max. Matt said _"Well...lets go get zapped."_

**Meanwhile...**

Poliwhirl led the group of pokemon, trainers and pokethropes to where Slowking usually was. It was in a more secluded cave, closer to the surface. _"He likes peace and quiet to think,"_ said Poliwhirl, _"So don't make too much noise."_

Matt got a twitch at this and Blaziken, who had known Matt long enough by now, fished out a shellder, whispered something to it and the Shellder jumped on Matt's snout, clamping it shut.

Matt left out a muffled yell and tried to pull off the Shellder. Slowking was sitting on a small rock pedestal in the middle of the cave, apparently thinking about something. _"Erm...Mr Slowking?"_ asked Max, as Matt struggled with the shellder which sniggered.

Slowking turned to face them and said, "Ah, good morning. Is there something I can help you with?" To their surprise, he spoke not in Pokespeech, but with a human tongue. May and Chloes mouths fell open. "You can talk?" said Chloe.

"Yes," said Slowking, "Through my various studies, I've learned how to speak to humans. It was a difficult process, but I believe the rewards were well worth it, wouldn't you agree?" "Well...its makes life easier, that's for sure." said Chloe. May said "Poliwhirl said you know something about Pokethropy."

"Yes, I can see their sisters are anxious to find a remedy, at least for the one who's currently a Charizard," said Slowking. Chloe looked at Matt who had clamped the shellder on his nose between his feet and was trying to pull it off. "Yes...a cure would be nice." She said.

"How did you she was her brother?" asked May. "Simple," said Slowking, "One look at them can clearly show they have identical personalities, often the case with siblings. With you and your brother, I have heard about the Gym Leader Norman and his children and you two bear some resemblance to him. Also, the scent of Pokethropy is unmistakable."

Chloe said "Is there a cure? I can't take him home like this..." There was a 'ping' as Matt managed to get the Shellder loose. "There is, but it's very hard to aquire," said Slowking, "To tell you the truth, I'm not completely certain of its effectiveness. I shall have to check my resources about it."

Max said "There's another problem. Poliwrath. Some of the pokemon are turning violent from his teachings." Matt added _"Yeah...I was almost a icicle." _Slowking sighed and said, "Yes, I was afraid of that. Most Poliwrath are able to control their aggression, but Poliwrath was never the humble type. I warned him that using a Water Stone on himself will not end well. I only wish he could have been more open-minded."

"He needs to be stopped before someone gets hurt or worse." said Chloe. "Normally, I would try to stop him," said Slowking, "But I fear that if I provoke him, it would only lead to more violence and possible war between the Slowpoke and the Poliwhirl. No, another of the Poliwag family must defeat him."

"Great...that'll be fun." said Chloe. May said "But he could beat all of them...he must be at least 10 levels above all the others." "There isn't anyone with enough power to stop him," said Poliwhirl. Slowking just smiled and said, "Some people are born with power. Others have power dropped upon them." "That won;t be easy." said Chloe.

"This spring is special," said Slowking, "Not only is the water always clean and the Shellder, Poliwag, and Slowpoke family can live here peacefully, but it provides us the means to access all of our evolutions." Chloe looked down at the spring. "Wasn't this in a book at the gym?" she asked May.

"I'm not sure," said May, "I once heard about Slowpoke and Poliwhirl have branched evolutions, but I don't remember it that well."

...

Not far away, Dante and the team rocket duo was not having as fine a day. "Dammit...how can we know this is the right place?" he said angrily. The fact that the local shellder liked the taste of feet...if Dante was any judge from the 12 times he'd had to pull the pokemon off.

"Where else can you find Shellder around here?" said Butch. "If this is the place, we'll be able to find Cloyster here too," said Cassidy. Dante turned and went rigid. A couple of Cloysters had surfaced behind them. "Erm...clams..." he said pointing as the Cloysters started to glow.

"Does that look like Spike Cannon to you?" asked Cassidy. "You wanna find out? RUN AWAY!" yelled Dante as the Cloysters demonstrated that, yes...it was spike cannon.

...

Blaziken paused and said, _"There's that yelping again."_ Matt nodded_. "I definitely heard that...come on, lets go look._" The gang headed back to the main cavern. Apparently, the yelping had attracted more than just their attention as several Poliwag, Poliwhirl, Slowpoke, and Slowbro had gathered there.

The poliwrath was also there. _"What was that?"_ he demanded, heading for Chloe, only for Matt to get in front. _"Back off, frog boy."_ Matt snarled. _"I don't think you're in any position to tell me what to do, candle tail,"_ said Poliwrath before squirting a Water Gun at Matt's tail flame. Matt yelped before aiming a punch at Poliwrath.

Poliwrath dodged the punch and then its right arm started glowing with a light blue aura. He clenched the fist on that arm and punched Matt straight in the face. "Ow, that was DynamicPunch," said Max. Matt was K.O'ed clean out and fell backwards. Chloe glared and was about to get her pistol out.

"Chloe, don't," said May, "If you shoot him, you'll just get him angry and declare us enemies." "Believe me...if he carries on I'll shoot him so it'll be impossible to declare anything." Chloe said angrily.

Poliwhirl walked over to Matt and used Doubleslap to try to wake him up. When that failed, he tried using Water Gun on Matt's head. Matt woke up with a glubbing noise. _"Argh...where is that smeghead?"_ he said, getting up unsteadily. _"Matt, don't try to start a fight. It'll only make things worse,"_ said Poliwhirl.

Matt shook his head. _"Everythings spinning..."_ he said, shaking his head to clear his vision to no effect. "What's wrong with Matt?" asked Chloe. "It's DynamicPunch's special effect," said Max, "If it hits, then the enemy becomes confused." Chloe glared, aiming. "Thats it...He's dead." she said.

Just then, three people tumbled out with a splash from the tunnel the group had first came from. They looked to see Butch, Cassidy, and Dante with several bits of ice clinging to them. Chloe turned, still holding her gun. Dante didn't bother to wait and fired at her.

His shot was good as it got her in the arm and knocked her over. Dante smirked. "Nice...I'm guessing this is the place...and I get to deal with a pain in my butt for good measure." he said.

_"Hey!"_ snapped Matt, _"No one blasts my sister but me!"_ He tried to hit Dante with a Flamethrower, but he missed by several inches. Dante jumped back before tossing a grenade in the water behind Matt, causing a column of water to soak Matt...and his tail flame.

Matt yelped and clambered up a nearby stalacmite. Dante laughed. "Too easy...Butch Cassidy...lets get this done." he ordered. A dazed Chloe sat up. "Butch Cassidy? Where? I wanna get his autograph..." She back over.

"Hey! What do you think you're doing here?" demanded May. "This spring's for Shellder, Slowpoke, Poliwag, and their evolutions!" said Max. "That's the big idea, kid," said Butch. "We're taking them all, plus their evolution trinkets," said Cassidy. Dante stared. "What the hell? WHY'D YOU TELL EM THAT?"

"Uh, I don't know," said Butch. "Old habit, I guess," said Cassidy. "Ok...let me handle them. You just grab the clams." said Dante, before turning to the kids. "Now then...first person to move gets shot in the kneecap." he said in a cheerful voice.

_"Slowpoke, can't you do something?"_ whispered Max, "This is your spring they're invading?" The slowpoke looked at Max. One actually confirmed Max's expectations and said _"Duh?" _

"Well, shouldn't the Poliwag do something?" asked May. The Poliwag and Poliwhirl, however, were paralyzed with fear. Poliwhirl didn't look happy and charged Dante. "Oh no you don't" said Dante, turning and firing.

Poliwrath dodged used Agility and then used Body Slam to send Dante flying into a wall. "You little toad." said Dante, getting up, his body arnour having protected him from the worst of the hit, before firing an explosive round at Poliwraths feet.

Poliwrath was thrown backwards and hit his head (or rather the top of his body) on a stalagmite. It fell into the spring, the spirals in his eyes matching the one on his belly. "Now then...does any other little freak wanna play hero...or do I have to kill someone?" said Dante, staggering a bit.

The Slowpoke and Slowbro still looked oblivious to the situation while the Poliwag and Poliwhirl were too scared to move. However, the Poliwhirl that Matt and the others befriended was not that frozen. "You don't belong in here," he said before he started spinning the spiral on his belly. Butch looked over at him. "What the...uuuuh." he said, his eyes turning into little spirals. Dante and Cassidy looked over. "Ok...thats new." said Dante.

"Butch? You ok?" asked Cassidy. She reached over and poked Butch's shoulder. Butch fell onto the wet floor and started wiggling apart, all the time saying, "Magikarp, Magikarp, Magikarp." Dante shrugged. "Who cares? Lets get this done and then we'll see to him."

Poliwhirl wasn't done yet and then started using Bubblebeam at the two crooks. Dante glared "Right...frog pâté." he snarled and fired another explosive round. The explosive missed slightly and blew the ground that Poliwhirl was standing on away. Poliwhirl was sent flying through the air, along with anyone who was near him. "Nice shot, Dan-" started Cassidy before a Slowbro landed on top of her. Dante turned to shoot the slowbro, only for a shellder to clamp over his head.

Max and May were also knocked backwards by the blast. When they looked up, they saw several crown-shaped rocks falling down from the air, apparently blasted out from where the explosion hit. "Hey, those are King's Rocks," said Max. May looked at the spot that had been blown up to see a few blue crystals with bubbly textures inside inside the exposed rocks. "And those are Water Stones," said May.

One of the king rocks fell down and landed on the dazed Poliwhirls head. A second one knocked Butch back to sanity, but sadly also knocked him out. Dante eventually pulled the Shellder off his head and said, "That does it. I'm having frog's legs for lunch." He aimed his blaster straight at Poliwhirl. Poliwhirl slowly got up, even though he was badly hurt. _"I won't let you...take my friends...or ruin this spring. This is our sanctuary!"_

Dante shrugged. He had not understood a word he got close to the meaning. "Whatever...say goodbye." he said before taking a step back as the king rock and Poliwhirl started to glow. As everyone watched, the two of them seemed to merge before growing larger. When the light faded, Poliwhirl was virtually unrecognizable. He now resembled a green and yellow frog with a curly hair on his head. The only part that resemble Poliwhirl was a small spiral on his belly. "What the hell?" said Dante, reloading his rifle.

"What did he evolve into?" asked May as she checked her Pokedex:

'**Politoed, the Frog Pokemon. After Poliwhirl evolves with a King's Rock, it becomes very proud of its voice and will often sing. Its croaks can summon Poliwag and Poliwhirl from miles around who recognize it as their leader for the hair upon its head.'**

Dante glared. "Like I care...just a bigger target." he said, aiming. _"Hey, no picking on the little guy,"_ said Matt before letting go of the stalactite he had been cleaning to and dropping on top of Dante. Dante barely even had time to look up before Matt did his impromptu Body Slam.

Matt looked quite smug. There was a faint "Ouuuch." from under him. Matt got up and snarled angrily at Cassidy, before picking up Butch and Dante and bashing them together before throwing them at Cassidy.

Politoed inhaled deeply before opening his mouth and blowing out an icy blast of wind. Since Dante, Butch, and Cassidy were already wet, they quickly became frozen in a block of ice. "Cool, Icy Wind," said May. Matt picked up the trio and looked angrily at Dante. _"You shot my sister...bye." _he snarled before throwing the trio at the ceiling. Luckily the ceiling wasn't far from the surface so the trio just shot through.

"Looks like Team Rocket's blasting off again!" shouted Butch and Cassidy. "Will you quit saying that?" snapped Dante as they disappeared from sight. Matt smirked as only a Charizard could before going up to his sister.

_"Chloe, wakey, wakey,"_ said Matt. "Uh, five more minutes, Mom," said a dazed Chloe. Matt looked at where she had been hit and sighed. It was barely a scratch but she still needed waking. He picked her up and tossed her into the spring. _"You could have just had one of the Pokemon squirt her or something,"_ said Max. _"True, but that was more rewarding,"_ said Matt.

There was a splash as Poliwrath got up. _"Hey? What? Where'd those humans go?"_ asked Poliwrath. Then he spotted Matt and said, _"You! You lead those humans here! I should have known you'd bring disaster to this sanctuary!"_ Matt glared as Poliwrath advanced before drawing himself to his full sight, his eyes glowing red. _"You little...squirt. Cause of you, my sister got shot." _he snarled, with the full power of a pokethropes rage behind it.

_"Matthew, that will not be necessary."_ Everyone looked to see Slowking standing on a high ledge. _"There is no need for you to fight him,"_ said Slowking. Matt glared at Poliwrath before backing up a bit.

Poliwrath glared up at Slowking and said, _"So, finally decided to show your face around here, eh? How about we settle once and for all who rules this spring." "Yes, we shall, but I shall not fight you,"_ said Slowking before pointing at Politoed, _"He will."_

Poliwrath turned to see Politoed and said _"I always knew you'd evolve like the weakling slowpoke you look after." "At least I actually look after others,"_ said Politoed, _"Your idea of 'protection' is to force them into the same 'muscle-over-mind' style and intimidate the ones who can't adjust."_

_"The strongest survive...not weaklings like you."_ said Poliwrath_. "The strongest should protect the weaklings,"_ countered Politoed_. "Hah..."_ said Poliwrath and aimed a mega punch at Politoed.

Politoed, however, jumped over Poliwrath's attack and went high into the air. "That looks like Bounce," said Max. _"Hey! Come down from there!"_ demanded Poliwrath. _"As you wish,"_ said Politoed before landing right on top of Poliwrath. Poliwrath was knocked senseless by the hit, before getting up and sending an ice beam at Politoed.

Politoed was knocked back slightly by the Ice Beam, but then his hair and eyes started glowing blue. Very soon after that, all of Poliwrath started glowing blue. "That looks like Psychic," said May.

Poliwrath was sent flying backwards into the wall hard enough to crack the rock. _"I think we have a winner."_ said Matt. Poliwrath slowly got back up and said, _"You're...not...getting...rid...of...me..." "Normally, I wouldn't,"_ said Politoed, _"But I can't let you stay here or else you will cause more trouble. So I have no choice but to exile you from this spring and to never return. Farewell."_ Politoed inhaled deeply and blasted Poliwrath with a Hyper Voice attack.

The blast sent poliwrath flying off, making another skylight in the roof as the pokemon went flying off into the distance. Slowking nodded in satisfaction and said, _"Hopefully, the next Poliwhirl to use a Water Stone would be a gentler one."_

Matt felt rather pleased that poliwrath was dealt with till he saw a line of bubbles heading for the shore where he was. Slowly Chloe emerged, looking quite angry. _"Oh, Chloe, you're up..."_ said Matt hesitatingly. Chloe picked up a large rock and weighed it before dropping it and picking up the rifle Dante had dropped. "I'll give you a head start." she said darkly.

"Now, now, aren't there other things you can vent your anger on?" asked Matt. Just then, a small pink ball fell down from the hole in the ceiling and landed on a small ledge, revealing itself to be Jigglypuff. _"Like that guy,"_ said Matt. Chloe followed his gaze and yelled "DIE!" but she was sadly too slow. It was probably the first time Jigglypuff had been happy its singing could knock people out.

Thanks to the cavern's acoustics, Jigglypuff's song echoed throughout the cave network of the spring. It quickly put everyone who heard it to sleep. Jigglypuff was getting ready for the second verse when he noticed his audience had nodded off. With an angry honk, Jigglypuff pulled the cap off his marker and got ready to make his scribbling vengeance.

Jigglypuff was about to scribble on Chloe when he remembered what had happened the last time. He slowly put the top back on...petted her on the head and legged it. One escape from being blown up was enough for one day.

**A little while later... **

Matt woke up. That nap had really helped recharge his batteries. Then he remembered what put him to sleep and looked at his reflection in the water. The moustache was back from the looks of things, complete with glasses. He gulped and closed his eyes, turning to face chloe before risking opening one eye to see a scribble-free chloe and sighed with relief.

_"Well, it would seem that we received a little body art while we were asleep,"_ said Slowking, who now had spots and circles all over his face. Matt looked at Slowking while Chloe laughed her head off at the others, and also smug that she was spared. _"Aren't you annoyed?"_

_"Small bothers in life are hardly worth fretting about,"_ said Slowking, _"Besides, I was grateful to be given a chance to sleep." "Thats deep."_ said Matt.

...

Sadly, Namba was not as peaceful as Slowking, mostly as Dante and co had returned via the roof of his office. "Don't tell me you've come back completely empty handed!" yelled Namba. "Yes, captain pugwash, the mainbrace is treacled." gibbered Dante. He had been rthe first to land and as such had been squashed by Butch and Cassidy.

"Ugh, simpletons, is it so much to ask that you bring that one Pokemon?" demanded Namba. Suddenly, Poliwrath through the ceiling and landed on the hapless trio. Dante made an 'oof' from the bottom of the pile and said weakly as his brain passed through sanity on its way somewhere else "There...can I be paid now? I need to go to Casualty."

"Hmm, interesting specimen, fully-evolved too," said Namba, "I suppose it will do for now." "I want my paycheck...and my spleen." moaned Dante.

...

After washing off the marker, things settled down at the spring pretty quickly. The Poliwag and Poliwhirl joyful to have a much more sensitive leader. The Shellder and Cloyster mostly stayed at the bottom of the pool, not interested in the new king. The Slowpoke and Slowbro didn't seem to notice a difference. As a matter of fact, there were quite a few who haven't even woken up.

Matt was poking one. _"Do they were notice anything?"_ he asked. _"We tend to be very laidback,"_ said Slowking. _"Nice."_ said Matt. Chloe stretched and said, "Well, that was a well-needed nap. Now what was I going to do before that? Oh yeah, I remember..." She picked up Dante's discarded rifle and cocked it. Matt gulped_. "Mercy."_ he whined.

While Chloe was administering 'sibling retribution' to Matt, May was talking to Slowking. "So you think you'll be able to find a cure for at least Matt?" she asked. Slowking looked over at where Matt was being introduced to geology via a rock to the head repeatedly and winced. "I can...but it will take five days for me to confirm." he said, turning back.

"Hopefully, she'll have left something of Matt to cure," said Max. May nodded and winced as Chloe finished off Matt. "Thats the first time that I've seen a human kick a charizards butt."

**Well...looks like the gang are on the trail of a cure for Matt...tune in next time.**


End file.
